Harvesting Planck radiation for free-space optical communications in the long-wave infrared band
Abstract
We demonstrate a free-space optical communication link with an optical transmitter that harvests naturally occurring Planck radiation from a warm body and modulates the emitted intensity. The transmitter exploits an electro-thermo-optic effect in a multilayer graphene device that electrically controls the surface emissivity of the device resulting in control of the intensity of the emitted Planck radiation. We design an amplitude-modulated optical communication scheme and provide a link budget for communications data rate and range based on our experimental electro-optic characterization of the transmitter. Finally, we present an experimental demonstration achieving error-free communications at 100 bits per second over laboratory scales.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 28, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1364/ol.476394
Entities
People
- Haley A. Weinstein
- Jonathan L. Habif
- Stephen B Cronin
- Zhi Cai
Organizations
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Department of Energy
- University of Southern California