US 11,888,533 B1
Reducing scintillation noise in free-space optical communications
Thomas M. Chaffee, Lexington, VA (US); Wayne H. Knox, Rochester, NY (US); Alexander B. LeBon, Lexington, VA (US); Brian M. Gregory, Lexington, VA (US); and Taz M. Colangelo, Lexington, VA (US)
Assigned to Attochron, LLC, Lexington, VA (US)
Filed by Attochron, LLC, Lexington, VA (US)
Filed on Sep. 29, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/478,928.
Application 18/478,928 is a continuation of application No. 18/304,007, filed on Apr. 20, 2023.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04B 10/69 (2013.01); H04B 10/556 (2013.01); H04B 10/116 (2013.01)
CPC H04B 10/697 (2013.01) [H04B 10/116 (2013.01); H04B 10/556 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical communication system for optically transmitting data through a variably refractive medium, the optical communication system comprising:
a modulated optical source configured to generate a modulated beam of light to encode transmission data into a plurality of time slots,
wherein the modulated optical source includes a waveguide that amplifies emitted light,
the modulated beam of light emitted by the modulated optical source has a coherence length less than 400 microns,
the modulated beam of light includes high frequency noise in a form of amplitude fluctuations, and
the modulated beam of light has a first signal-to-noise ratio; and an optical amplifier,
wherein the optical amplifier is configured to receive the modulated beam of light from the modulated optical source and both amplify and filter the modulated beam of light to produce a filtered beam of light, and
the filtered beam has a second signal-to-noise ratio, and the second signal-to-noise ratio is at least three times as large as the first signal-to-noise ratio, and
wherein the optical communication system is configured to transmit the filtered beam of light, through a variably refractive medium, to a detector having a photoreceiver, and the photoreceiver is configured to extract the transmission data from the filtered beam of light.