Tbps wide-field parallel optical wireless communications based on a metasurface beam splitter
Yue Wu, Ji Chen, Yin Wang, Zhongyi Yuan, Chunyu Huang, Jiacheng Sun, Chengyi Feng, Muyang Li, Kai Qiu, Shining Zhu, Zaichen Zhang, Tao Li
Abstract
Optical wireless communication (OWC) stands out as one of the most promising technologies in the sixth-generation (6G) mobile networks. The establishment of high-quality optical links between transmitters and receivers plays a crucial role in OWC performances. Here, by a compact beam splitter composed of a metasurface and a fiber array, we proposed a wide-angle (~120°) OWC optical link scheme that can parallelly support up to 144 communication users. Utilizing high-speed optical module sources and wavelength division multiplexing technique, we demonstrated each user can achieve a communication speed of 200 Gbps which enables the entire system to support ultra-high communication capacity exceeding 28 Tbps. Furthermore, utilizing the metasurface polarization multiplexing, we implemented a full range wide-angle OWC without blind area nor crosstalk among users. Our OWC scheme simultaneously possesses the advantages of high-speed, wide communication area and multi-user parallel communications, paving the way for revolutionary high-performance OWC in the future.