Drive to optimise imaging and optical communications

According to a statement, the goal of the two projects is to develop new theory and experimental techniques that enable optical communications and imaging systems to operate at their ultimate limits of information-encoding efficiency.

The first project, PIECOMM (Photon Information Efficient Communications), aims to create techniques that increase the current limits of optical communications technology while approaching the ultimate limits of photon information efficiency.

Achieving this goal will significantly increase power management, speed and reach on free-space optical communication links, including far-field links used in deep space.

‘Today, optical communications are far from ultimate performance and reaching the furthest limits of light’s information-carrying capacity,’ said Saikat Guha, Raytheon BBN Technologies scientist. ‘We are developing techniques that greatly improve the performance of current optical communications and approach the quantum limits of light’s information-carrying capacity.’

Raytheon BBN Technologies will generate and demonstrate experimental solutions, such as multiple-spatial-mode design and adaptive joint-detection receivers that attain communications at 10-bits per photon and 5-bits/sec/Hz while simultaneously encoding information in space and time.