Exploration of Double Clad Fibers for Increased Stability of Bidirectional Free Space Optical LinksBidirectional, high data rate, low size, weight, and power (SWaP), and low cost free space optical links are needed for space communication applications to send and receive large volumes of data. We are exploring design strategies for optical transceivers to reduce SWaP and cost through increased misalignment tolerance (pointing requirement reduction) and sharing the optical transmit and receive paths (imposing optical symmetry). In applications where the detector is fiber coupled, the fiber numerical aperture is the main driver of the pointing accuracy requirement. Unfortunately, reducing the pointing requirement by increasing the fiber numerical aperture symmetrically causes instability in received power over small environmental changes. This paper explores double clad fibers as a solution to both reduce the power instability and increase the pointing accuracy tolerance. Double clad fibers can transmit a Gaussian beam from a single mode fiber and receive in a multi-mode aperture. Results show that double clad fiber have an improved misalignment tolerance and a higher stability for small changes in temperature when compared to single mode fibers and multimode fibers. Also, double clad fibers are shown to match the performance of an asymmetrical link design with a single mode transmit fiber and a multimode receive fiber.
Document ID
20180004405
Acquisition Source
Glenn Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Tedder, Sarah A. (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Schoenholz, Bryan L. (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Berkson, Joel (Arizona Univ. Tucson, AZ, United States)
Floyd, Bertram (Sierra Lobo, Inc. Cleveland, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
August 13, 2018
Publication Date
January 27, 2018
Subject Category
Optics
Report/Patent Number
GRC-E-DAA-TN50553Report Number: GRC-E-DAA-TN50553
Meeting Information
Meeting: SPIE Photonics West Exhibition
Location: San Francisco, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: January 27, 2018
End Date: February 1, 2018
Sponsors: International Society for Optical Engineering