Optical signal propagation through underwater channels is affected by three main degrading phenomena, namely, absorption, scattering, and fading. In this paper, we experimentally study the statistical distribution of intensity fluctuations in underwater wireless optical channels with random temperature and salinity variations, as well as the presence of air bubbles. In particular, we define different scenarios to produce random fluctuations on the water refractive index across the propagation path and, then, examine the accuracy of various statistical distributions in terms of their goodness of fit to the experimental data. We also obtain the channel coherence time to address the average period of fading temporal variations. The scenarios under consideration cover a wide range of scintillation index from weak to strong turbulence. Moreover, the effects of beam-expander-and-collimator (BEC) at the transmitter side and aperture averaging lens (AAL) at the receiver side are experimentally investigated. We show that the use of a transmitter BEC and/or a receiver AAL suits single-lobe distributions, such that the generalized Gamma and exponentiated Weibull distributions can excellently match the histograms of the acquired data. Our experimental results further reveal that the channel coherence time is on the order of 10 ⁻³ s and larger which implies to the slow fading turbulent channels.

In this letter, we analytically evaluate the end-to-end bit error rate (BER) of point-to-point multi-hop underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) systems with respect to all degrading effects of the UWOC channel, namely absorption, scattering, and turbulence-induced fading. To do so, we first derive the BER expression of a single-hop UWOC link as the building block for end-to-end BER evaluation. We also apply Gauss-Hermite quadrature formula to obtain the closed-form solution for the system BER in the case of lognormal underwater fading channel. Numerical results demonstrate that multi-hop transmission, by alleviating channel impairments, can significantly improve the system performance and extend the viable end-to-end communication distance.

In this Letter, we realize the concept of analog computing using an engineered gradient dielectric meta-reflect-array. The proposed configuration consists of individual subwavelength silicon nanobricks, in combination with a fused silica spacer and silver ground plane, realizing a reflection beam with full phase coverage of $2\pi$ degrees, as well as an amplitude range of 0 to 1. Spectrally overlapping electric and magnetic dipole resonances, such high-index dielectric metasurfaces can locally and independently manipulate the amplitude and phase of the incident electromagnetic wave. This practically feasible structure overcomes substantial limitations imposed by plasmonic metasurfaces such as absorption losses and low polarization conversion efficiency in the visible range. Using such CMOS-compatible and easily integrable platforms promises highly efficient ultrathin planar wave-based computing systems that circumvent the drawbacks of conventional bulky lens-based signal processors. Based on these key properties and the general concept of spatial Fourier transformation, we design and realize broadband mathematical operators such as the differentiator and integrator in the telecommunication wavelengths.

Leveraging subwavelength resonant nanostructures, plasmonic metasurfaces have recently attracted much attention as a breakthrough concept for engineering optical waves both spatially and spectrally. However, inherent ohmic losses concomitant with low coupling efficiencies pose fundamental impediments over their practical applications. Not only can all-dielectric metasurfaces tackle such substantial drawbacks, but also their CMOS-compatible configurations support both Mie resonances that are invariant to the incident angle. Here, we report on a transmittive metasurface comprising arrayed silicon nanodisks embedded in a homogeneous dielectric medium to manipulate phase and amplitude of incident light locally and almost independently. By taking advantage of the interplay between the electric/magnetic resonances and employing general concepts of spatial Fourier transformation, a highly efficient metadevice is proposed to perform mathematical operations including solution of ordinary differential and integro-differential equations with constant coefficients. Our findings further substantiate dielectric metasurfaces as promising candidates for miniaturized, two-dimensional, and planar optical analog computing systems that are much thinner than their conventional lens-based counterparts.

In this paper, we experimentally investigate the statistical distribution of intensity fluctuations for underwater wireless optical channels under different channel conditions, namely fresh and salty underwater channels with and without air bubbles. To do so, we first measure the received optical signal with a large number of samples. Based on the normalized acquired data the channel coherence time and the fluctuations probability density function (PDF) are obtained for different channel scenarios. Our experimental results show that salt attenuates the received signal while air bubbles mainly introduce severe intensity fluctuations. Moreover, we observe that log-normal distribution precisely fits the acquired data PDF for scintillation index (σ2I) values less than 0.1, while Gamma-Gamma and K distributions aptly predict the intensity fluctuations for σ2I > 1. Since neither of these distributions are capable of predicting the received irradiance for 0.1 < σ2I < 1, we propose a combination of an exponential and a log-normal distributions to perfectly describe the acquired data PDF for such regimes of scintillation index.

In this letter, a plasmonic absorber consisting of a metal-dielectric-metal stack with a top layer of Sierpinski nanocarpet is theoretically investigated. Such a compact absorber depicts broadband angle-independent behavior over a wide optical wavelength range (400-700 nm) and a broad range of incidence angles (0°-80°). Including several feature sizes, such a fractal-like structure shows an average simulated extinction response of 0.85 for either transverse electric or magnetic polarization states under normal incidence. Underlying mechanisms of absorbance due to excited surface plasmon modes as well as electric/magnetic dipole resonances are well revealed by investigating electric field, magnetic field, and current distributions. The proposed absorber opens a path to realize high-performance ultrathin light trapping devices.