A Modulating retro-reflector for free-space optical communication

We present modeling of a modulating retro-reflector for free-space optical communication, composed of a reflective resonant-cavity modulator and a corner cube. Although resonant-cavity modulators are sensitive to the angle of incidence of the light beam, we show that with the right geometrical arrangement, the field of view can be more than ten-fold that of the modulator. The modeling is validated by experimental data using a corner cube and a 14 /spl times/ 14 mm/sup 2/ multiple quantum-well modulator.