Compact free-space optical terminal for multi-gigabit signal transmissions with a single-mode fiber

This paper shows the design and the performance of a new free-space optical communication terminal including the results of the indoor and outdoor demonstration experiments in a short link distance. To provide flexible and high-speed connectivity to the terrestrial free-space optical communications, a new compact laser communication terminal has been developed at NICT. The terminal has a feature to connect the free-space laser beam directly to single mode fiber by using a special fiber coupler to focus the free-space laser beam and couple it into the single mode fiber, fast and accurate fine tracking system and a small refractive-type telescope with diffraction limited performance. The bandwidth of the fine tracking system is more than 5 kHz using an off-the-shelf miniature Galvano mirror actuator and an analog PID controller.