Abstract

We demonstrate a free-space optical communication link with an optical transmitter that harvests naturally occurring Planck radiation from a warm body and modulates the emitted intensity. The transmitter exploits an electro-thermo-optic effect in a multilayer graphene device that electrically controls the surface emissivity of the device resulting in control of the intensity of the emitted Planck radiation. We design an amplitude-modulated optical communication scheme and provide a link budget for communications data rate and range based on our experimental electro-optic characterization of the transmitter. Finally, we present an experimental demonstration achieving error-free communications at 100 bits per second over laboratory scales.

Date

November 28, 2022

Authors

Haley A Weinstein, Zhi Cai, Stephen B Cronin, Jonathan L Habif

Journal

Optics Letters

Volume

47

Issue

23

Pages

6225-6228

Publisher

Optica Publishing Group