Effect of multi-beam propagation on free-space coherent optical communications in a slant atmospheric turbulence

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.