Free-space optical communication is a promising means to establish versatile, secure and high-bandwidth communication between mobile nodes for many critical applications. While the spatial modes of light offer a degree of freedom to increase the information capacity of an optical link, atmospheric turbulence can introduce severe distortion to the spatial modes and lead to data degradation. Here, we demonstrate experimentally a vector-beam-based, turbulence-resilient communication protocol, namely spatial polarization differential phase shift keying (SPDPSK), that can reliably transmit high-dimensional information through a turbulent channel without the need of any adaptive optics for beam compensation. In a proof-of-principle experiment with a controllable turbulence cell, we measure a channel capacity of 4.84 bits per pulse using 34 vector modes through a turbulent channel with a scintillation index of 1.09, and 4.02 bits per pulse using 18 vector modes through even stronger turbulence corresponding to a scintillation index of 1.54.

In this paper we propose a graphene-based metasurface structure that can exhibit tunable electromagnetically-induced-transparency-like (EIT) spectral response at mid-infrared frequencies. The metasurface structure is composed of two subwavelength mono-layer graphene nano-disks coupled with a mono-layer graphene nano-strip. We show that the coupling of the nano-disks’ dipole resonance with the quadrupole resonance of the nano-strip can create two split resonances with a transparency window in between at any desired center frequency within a wide frequency range. We show that such an EIT-like response can also be dynamically shifted in frequency by adjusting the Fermi-level of the graphene through external voltage control, which provides convenient post-fabrication tunability. In addition, the performance of such a metastructure for sensing the refractive index of the surrounding medium is analyzed. The simulation results show that its sensitivity can reach 3016.7 nm/(RIU) with a FOM exceeding 12.0. Lastly, we present an analysis of the slow light characteristics of the proposed device, where the group index can reach as large as 200. Our design provides a new miniaturized sensing platform that can facilitate the development of biochemical molecules testing, etc.

The large number of spatial modes supported by standard multimode fibers is a promising platform for boosting the channel capacity of quantum and classical communications by orders of magnitude. However, the practical use of long multimode fibers is severely hampered by modal crosstalk and polarization mixing. To overcome these challenges, we develop and experimentally demonstrate a vectorial time reversal technique, which is accomplished by digitally pre-shaping the wavefront and polarization of the forward-propagating signal beam to be the phase conjugate of an auxiliary, backward-propagating probe beam. Here, we report an average modal fidelity above 80% for 210 Laguerre-Gauss and Hermite-Gauss modes by using vectorial time reversal over an unstabilized 1-km-long fiber. We also propose a practical and scalable spatial-mode-multiplexed quantum communication protocol over long multimode fibers to illustrate potential applications that can be enabled by our technique.

We present a direct tomography protocol that is capable of characterizing the transverse spatial profile of both the polarization and the complex amplitude of fully polarized vector light beams in a single-shot measurement. This protocol entails a sequence of steps: a coherent mode transformation, a weak polarization perturbation, and a polarization-resolved imaging process. The final readout is directly proportional to the complex amplitude profile of the two polarization components of the vector beam. We experimentally demonstrate our direct measurement protocol on a variety of commonly used vector beams, including vector vortex beams and full Poincaré beams. Our method provides the unique capability of acquiring all the information needed to characterize a fully polarized vector beam in a single-shot measurement. Such a real-time complete tomography protocol has the potential to create new opportunities in emerging applications of vector beams as well as fundamental study of complex physical systems with multiple degrees of freedom.

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