Optical receiving systems with single-lens structures have problems such as low receiving efficiency and small field of view when applied to underwater optical wireless communication systems. In this study, a design scheme for a double-layered fly-eye-lens optical system with wide-angle focusing is proposed. Based on the analysis of the LED light source transmission model and seawater channel, the optical-power receiving equation of the fly-eye lens system is deduced. The fly-eye-lens receiving system was designed and simulated using Zemax according to the geometrical optics principle of the lens array. An experimental device for measuring the insertion loss and receiving efficiency of an underwater blue-green LED communication system was built, and the optical power of the receiving optical system was experimentally measured. For the link distances of 1, 3, and 5 m, the received optical power of the double-layered-compound eye system was higher than that of the single-layered system, with a power increase of 72%, 65%, and 60%, respectively. The results show that the double-layered fly-eye-lens receiving antenna can significantly improve the optical power received by the receiving end; therefore, this antenna structure has strong practicability and good development prospects in the field of underwater optical wireless communication.

Based on the multi-beam propagation theory, a mathematic model of log-intensity fluctuation variance under multi-beam propagation in slant path atmospheric turbulence near the ground for free-space optical communication is established. Taking single beam, double beam, three beam, and four beams as examples, the intensity fluctuation characteristics of single beam and multi-beam are obtained, and the relationship between the log-intensity fluctuation and the bit error rate (BER) of the heterodyne detection coherent optical communications based on binary phase shift keying modulation is deduced. The results show that, with the increase of beam number, the variance of signal log-intensity fluctuation is significantly mitigated, and the BER of the system is significantly reduced. It proves that the multi-beam propagation method can be effectively applied to the long-distance coherent optical communications, and improve the performance of the system.

Atmospheric turbulence creates a light spot on the focal plane of the receiving end scintillation and angle of arrival fluctuation in optical wireless communication. The combination of a spot centroid detection algorithm and Kalman filter (KF) is proposed for spot tracking. The theoretical calculated value of the spot circle fit is filtered to obtain an optimal estimate of the spot center. The root mean square error of the detected spot centroids is used as an evaluation metric to verify the conventional algorithm and KF algorithm for the real-time tracking of the laser spot at transmission distances of 1.3, 4.1, and 10.3 km. The results show that the root mean square error of the spot in the pitch direction decreases from 0.740, 2.537, and 7.256 pixels to 0.683, 1.792, and 4.756 pixels, respectively, whereas the root mean square error of the spot in the horizontal direction decreases from 0.481, 2.131, and 5.932 pixels to 0.463, 1.471, and 4.362 pixels, respectively, compared with the conventional algorithm at three transmission distances. The envelope fluctuation of the baseband signal at the receiving end is significantly improved using KF algorithm compared with the conventional algorithm, which improves the stability of the optical wireless communication link.

In underwater blue-green optical communication, blue-green light is attenuated by seawater absorption, scattering, and ocean turbulence, and the scattering coefficients of blue-green light are different for different depths of seawater; that is, the transmission attenuation of blue-green light varies in different depths of seawater. We calculated the scattering coefficients and albedo of seawater at different depths and analyzed the received optical power of the detector and bit error rate when the blue-green light was line-of-sight (LOS) transmitted in different ways (horizontal, vertical, and oblique range) with the same distance in the same seawater depth range under the effect of absorption and scattering of seawater. Numerical results show that under the effect of absorption and scattering of seawater, the transmission attenuation of blue-green light is large in seawater with large albedo. Therefore, blue-green light in different depths of seawater in the same way LOS transmission of the same distance, the power of light required in the albedo of large seawater is large.

The wavefront distortion caused by atmospheric turbulence leads to the decrease of the coupling efficiency of spatial light to optical fiber. Adaptive optics technology was employed to improve the coupling efficiency of free-space coherent optical communication. Accordingly, the effect of the discrete distorted wavefront on the coupling efficiency could be determined. The experimental results showed that the average coupling power was −31.97, −31.42, −30.79, −32.05, and −35.31 dBm when turbulence strength D / r0 was 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, and 5, respectively. After eliminating the noncommon path aberration, the fiber coupling optical power increased from −35 to −27 dBm. After the optical wavefront was transmitted at indoor (0.5 m), 600 m, 1, 5, 10, and 100 km, the coupling efficiency increased from 10.1%, 1.3%, 11.4%, 2.8%, 7.2%, and 8.2% to 95.2%, 83.4%, 93.5%, 56.7%, and 42.4%, respectively, after wavefront correction. This will improve the performance of free-space coherent optical communication system.

Adaptive optics has been widely used as an integrated optoelectronic technology in laser communication,^{1 – 3} astronomical observation,⁴ fundus imaging,⁵ and other fields.⁶ Adaptive optics systems can be divided into wavefront sensor (WFS) correction and wavefront sensorless correction according to the type of detector.^7,8 For the system with wavefront correction, the WFS and deformable mirror (DM) play the roles of wavefront detection and correction, respectively. Establishing a precise mathematical relationship between the WFS and DM⁹ and implementing an effective control algorithm are two key steps in the closed-loop of an adaptive optical system.