Abstract
The feasibility of a high data rate coherent communication link through water is explored using a seeded phase conjugating retromodulator1 and ocean water (Fig. 1). A 4-ft long hollow glass tube filled with either ocean water or a dilute solution of Maalox is used to provide a distributed scattering dynamic aberrator. Turbulence and beam wander are created by nonuniform heating of points and extended regions on the tube's surface and by stirring. A single-longitudinal-mode argon-ion laser beam passes through the water acquiring aberrations that are imaged onto a photorefractive BaTiO3 crystal. Phase modulation (at a frequency much faster than the photorefractive response rate) is imposed on the return wave via electrodes on the same crystal. The return wave, with its phase conjugated to correct for the aberrations of the water, is mixed in a fiber optic coupler with a frequency shifted portion of the outgoing wave to provide sensitive coherent IF heterodyne detection of the modulation. The conjugate fidelity and reflectivity of the return wave determine how much light is coupled into the fiber.
© 1990 Optical Society of America
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