High-speed acoustic communication by multiplexing orbital angular momentum

Significance Acoustic communication is critical for underwater application such as deep-ocean scientific explorations and off-shore industrial controls. This is because other techniques using electromagnetic waves are difficult for underwater applications due to the strong absorption of water. Optical communication, on the other hand, suffers from the light scattering, making long-range underwater optical communication very challenging. Therefore, using acoustic waves to transmit information is currently the dominant technique for underwater applications. However, the low-frequency bandwidth available limits the data transmission rate and information capacity. We propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach using the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of acoustic vortex beams, which provides an independent channel that enhances the data transmission rate. This OAM multiplexing method will significantly impact future underwater communications. Long-range acoustic communication is crucial to underwater applications such as collection of scientific data from benthic stations, ocean geology, and remote control of off-shore industrial activities. However, the transmission rate of acoustic communication is always limited by the narrow-frequency bandwidth of the acoustic waves because of the large attenuation for high-frequency sound in water. Here, we demonstrate a high-throughput communication approach using the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of acoustic vortex beams with one order enhancement of the data transmission rate at a single frequency. The topological charges of OAM provide intrinsically orthogonal channels, offering a unique ability to multiplex data transmission within a single acoustic beam generated by a transducer array, drastically increasing the information channels and capacity of acoustic communication. A high spectral efficiency of 8.0 ± 0.4 (bit/s)/Hz in acoustic communication has been achieved using topological charges between −4 and +4 without applying other communication modulation techniques. Such OAM is a completely independent degree of freedom which can be readily integrated with other state-of-the-art communication modulation techniques like quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and phase-shift keying (PSK). Information multiplexing through OAM opens a dimension for acoustic communication, providing a data transmission rate that is critical for underwater applications.

[1]  Sandy Cochran,et al.  Mechanical evidence of the orbital angular momentum to energy ratio of vortex beams. , 2012, Physical review letters.

[2]  S. Chu,et al.  Observation of a single-beam gradient force optical trap for dielectric particles. , 1986, Optics letters.

[3]  Linda Mullen,et al.  Propagation of modulated light in water: implications for imaging and communications systems. , 2009, Applied optics.

[4]  A. Willner,et al.  Terabit-Scale Orbital Angular Momentum Mode Division Multiplexing in Fibers , 2013, Science.

[5]  Manzhu Ke,et al.  Valley vortex states in sonic crystals , 2016, 2016 Progress in Electromagnetic Research Symposium (PIERS).

[6]  S. Warren,et al.  Optical constants of ice from the ultraviolet to the microwave. , 1984, Applied optics.

[7]  Guowang Miao,et al.  Wireless network models , 2016 .

[8]  G. M. Hale,et al.  Optical Constants of Water in the 200-nm to 200-microm Wavelength Region. , 1973, Applied optics.

[9]  Jie Zhang,et al.  Observation of orbital angular momentum transfer from bessel-shaped acoustic vortices to diphasic liquid-microparticle mixtures. , 2015, Physical review letters.

[10]  C J Funk,et al.  Multiple scattering calculations of light propagation in ocean water. , 1973, Applied optics.

[11]  Guowang Miao,et al.  Fundamentals of Mobile Data Networks , 2016 .

[12]  T. I. Quickenden,et al.  The ultraviolet absorption spectrum of liquid water , 1980 .

[13]  Min Gu,et al.  On-chip noninterference angular momentum multiplexing of broadband light , 2016, Science.

[14]  宮崎 哲弥,et al.  High spectral density optical communication technologies , 2010 .

[15]  Norman Friedman,et al.  The Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapons Systems , 1989 .

[16]  Bin Liang,et al.  Convert Acoustic Resonances to Orbital Angular Momentum. , 2016, Physical review letters.

[17]  François Coulouvrat,et al.  Experimental observation of azimuthal shock waves on nonlinear acoustical vortices , 2009 .

[18]  Cheng-Wei Qiu,et al.  Broadband and stable acoustic vortex emitter with multi-arm coiling slits , 2016 .

[19]  Sriram Subramanian,et al.  Holographic acoustic elements for manipulation of levitated objects , 2015, Nature Communications.

[20]  Etienne Brasselet,et al.  Acoustic rotational manipulation using orbital angular momentum transfer. , 2012, Physical review letters.

[21]  Emrecan Demirors,et al.  Advances in Underwater Acoustic Networking , 2013, Mobile Ad Hoc Networking.

[22]  Milica Stojanovic,et al.  Recent advances in high-speed underwater acoustic communications , 1996 .

[23]  Liping Ye,et al.  Making sound vortices by metasurfaces , 2016 .

[24]  T. Mizuochi.  Forward Error Correction , 2010 .

[25]  Christina J. Naify,et al.  Generation of topologically diverse acoustic vortex beams using a compact metamaterial aperture , 2016, 1604.08447.

[26]  Erez Hasman,et al.  Photonic spin-controlled multifunctional shared-aperture antenna array , 2016, Science.

[27]  A. Willner,et al.  High-capacity millimetre-wave communications with orbital angular momentum multiplexing , 2014, Nature Communications.

[28]  A. Willner,et al.  Terabit free-space data transmission employing orbital angular momentum multiplexing , 2012, Nature Photonics.

[29]  H C Song,et al.  Efficient use of bandwidth for underwater acoustic communication. , 2013, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[30]  L. Freitag,et al.  Acoustic Communications for Regional Undersea Observatories , 2002 .

[31]  Régis Marchiano,et al.  Observation of a Single-Beam Gradient Force Acoustical Trap for Elastic Particles: Acoustical Tweezers. , 2014, Physical review letters.

[32]  N. Litchinitser,et al.  Orbital angular momentum microlaser , 2016, Science.

[33]  Philip L. Marston,et al.  An acoustical helicoidal wave transducer with applications for the alignment of ultrasonic and underwater systems , 1999 .

[34]  Hendrik Buiteveld,et al.  Optical properties of pure water , 1994, Other Conferences.

[35]  Linda Mullen,et al.  Investigation of the effect of scattering agent and scattering albedo on modulated light propagation in water. , 2011, Applied optics.