Diode pumped Nd:Host laser transmitter for intersatellite optical communications

A transmitter laser breadboard suitable for a coherent space communication system is under development. The paper reflects some design considerations and preliminary experimental results. A typical mission scenario is a communication return link between a LEO (low Earth orbit) and a GEO (geostationary Earth orbit) satellite at 45000 km distance, 500 Mb/s data rate, and 10 E-7 bit error rate. This, together with the option of employing the most sensitive coherent detection techniques like PSK homodyne, led to the technical requirements shown for the Nd:YAG transmitter laser which are specified as a development goal.<
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