Midinfrared Interband Cascade Laser for Free Space Optical Communication

A free space optical (FSO) link utilizing midinfrared (mid-IR) interband cascade lasers has been demonstrated in the 3- to 5-¿m atmospheric transmission window with data rates up to 70 Mb/s and bit-error rate (BER) less than 10
^-8
. The performance of the mid-IR FSO link has been compared with the performance of a near-IR link under various fog conditions using an indoor communication testbed. These experiments demonstrated the lower attenuation and scintillation advantages of a mid-IR FSO link.