Theoretical and Experimental Analysis on Statistical Properties of Coupling Efficiency for Single-Mode Fiber in Free-Space Optical Communication Link Based on Non-Kolmogorov Turbulence

Non-Kolmogorov turbulence has been widely observed in free-space optical communication links and should be used to evaluate the system performance. We calculated the wavefront residual variance in the condition of the non-Kolmogorov turbulence model and deduced the mathematical expression of the probability density function (PDF) for the coupling efficiency (CE) of a single-mode fiber (SMF). The PDF was simulated, and the results showed its robustness and rationality. Moreover, an experiment was set up to verify the PDF with experimental distribution. The correlation coefficients are above 0.95 in all cases, which means the statistical model of the CE fitted the experimental distribution well.

Automated summary

In this study, we calculated the wavefront residual variance under the non-Kolmogorov turbulence model and derived the mathematical expression for the probability density function (PDF) of coupling efficiency (CE). The PDF was simulated and validated through experiments, showing robustness and accuracy.