Turbulence-resilient high-capacity free-space optical communication

Free space optical communication is a promising means to establish versatile, secure and high-bandwidth communication for many critical point-to-point applications. While the spatial modes of light offer an additional degree of freedom to increase the data rate of an optical link, atmospheric turbulence imposes a serious threat to the data fidelity as it can introduce severe inter-mode crosstalk and consequently data degradation. Here, we introduce a high-dimensional free space communication protocol using vector beams. Our protocol uses the spatial polarization profiles of orthogonal vector vortex beams to represent information levels, and we show both numerically and experimentally that such a protocol can be resilient to moderately strong atmospheric turbulence without the need of any adaptive optics.