CO2 laser as a possible candidate for optical transmitter in free-space satellite-ground-satellite laser communication: a case study

摘要

Terrestrial fiber optic communication systems handle most of the inter-continental communication systems today. However recent studies indicate that these links, in spite of their huge bandwidth will be saturated in the near future. Hence attempts are being made is augment and may be even replace these by inter satellite links (ISLs). Though high power laser diodes have been found to be suitable for ISLs, they are unfortunately inadequate for satellite-ground links (SGL and GSL) as they are not powerful enough. So we have to look for more powerful lasers for SGLs & GSLs. One possible candidate is the CO$-2$/ laser. It is a gas laser. It provides a number of advantages over other sources. They include high life time, high efficiency and stability. Besides it can generate a high power continuous wave and requires only radiative cooling. CO$-2$/ can provide a high bit rate and long range transmission with low bit error rate. Also CO$-2$/ laser is in near infra-red and hence the turbulence effects due to clouds is minimum. All these make CO2 laser a very economical choice. The use of optical communication in GSLs provides many advantages over radio links. Laser being a high energy source provides the advantage of greater bandwidth, smaller beam divergence angles, smaller antennae, greater security and a new spectrum. Lesser power consumption and smaller size make it more suitable for use in a satellite. The present paper deals with a case study of a CO$-2$/ laser based free space optical communication link by making the link budget analysis.