CO2 Optical Bistability For 10.6µm Digital Laser Communication

A novel technique of digital laser space communication, in which a device of CO2 optical bistability is utilized as the optical switch, is presented. In this paper, the theory of optical bistability (03) in 10.6um with the Fabry-Perot (F-P) interferometer device and intracavity electrooptic modulation (IEM) device are introduced. Corresponding experimental results, which show the consistency with the theoritical analyses, are observed. Choosing the scanning F-P interferometer device and IEM device as our experimental components for CO2 laser digital communication, the elementary experiments of this technique in 10.6um laser communication link are achieved.