Enhancing Performance of Air–Ground OAM Communication System Utilizing Vector Vortex Beams in the Atmosphere

The modified uplink and downlink atmospheric turbulence channel models were established and employed to assess the system performance of air–ground orbital angular momentum (OAM) communication. The advantage of the vector vortex beam taking the place of the scalar one in the OAM communication system operated in the atmospheric turbulence was verified, that vector vortex beam can guarantee the more homogeneous energy in the circular hollow beam profile and the less phase distortion on signal OAM in the turbulence, which can reduce OAM crosstalk and improve OAM communication performance, especially small topological charge in strong turbulent regime. With the increase in turbulence strength, the vortex beam with a larger topological charge suffered more OAM mode crosstalk, and the average BER of the OAM communication system increased. Bessel–Gaussian (BG) beams with larger beam shape parameters had the strong capability of turbulence disturbance rejection in short-distance atmospheric applications, conversely, Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) beams with suitable parameter selection were preferred for long-distance atmospheric applications. Additionally, compared to the downlink channel, the transmission of OAM mode and the related communication system in the uplink channel are dramatically deteriorated due to atmospheric turbulent effects.