Comparative Test of Novel Fluorescent Optical Antennas for LED- and Laser-Based Optical Wireless Communications

Year: 2025

Authors: Meucci M., Aresti M., Cossu G., Gilli L., Oliviero L., Bartolini M., Pucci A., Ciaramella E., Catani J.

Autors Affiliation: CNR, CNR INO Ist Nazl Ottica, Via Nello Carrara 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; LENS European Lab Nonlinear Spect, Via Nello Carrara 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Scuola Super Sant Anna, Via Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa, Italy; CNR ICCOM Ist Chim Composti Organometall, Via Madonna Piano 10, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Pisa, Dipartimento Chim & Chim Ind, Via Moruzzi 13, I-56124 Pisa, Italy.

Abstract: Fluorescent Concentrators (FCs) are set to revolutionize Optical Wireless Communications (OWC), offering significant advantages over traditional receivers, such as large Field of View (FoV) and enhanced optical gain (OG). In this study, three different Optical Antennas are presented and evaluated as OWC receivers, exploiting FCs incorporating different fluorophores. The performances of DQ1 and Lumogen Red 305F (LR305), and a newly synthesized fluorophore (H2) are comparatively tested for solar energy harvesting, never proposed before for OWC. The devices are tested in high bit rate, laser-based OWC configuration, and for indoor LED-based Visible Light Communication (VLC) by presenting a realistic indoor VLC transmitter-receiver (TX-RX) system embedding high-power white LEDs as transmitter. The results demonstrate that all the proposed OAs exhibit greater angular stability than traditional detectors, potentially offering greater resilience to misalignment and beam wandering effects, particularly relevant also in Free Space Optical (FSO) configurations. Furthermore, the intrinsic properties of H2 and LR305 make them particularly suited for white-light VLC applications. Based on a thorough experimental characterization, the work is the first to propose and evaluate in detail the performance of various new OAs, depending on the specific application, highlighting the efficiency of such devices across various OWC fields.

Journal/Review: ADVANCED OPTICAL MATERIALS

More Information: This work was in part supported by the European Union under the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan of Next Generation EU, partnership on Telecommunications of the Future (PE00000001 – program RESTART), in part by the European Uni on – Next Generation EU, Integrated infrastructure initiative in Photonic and Quantum Sciences – I-PHOQS under Grants IR0000016, ID D2B8D520, and CUP B53C22001750006, and in part by the project FLUOCOM under the initiative Progetti@CNR by CNR. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Massimo Calamante of CNR-ICCOM for valuable support in preparing the FCs and a careful reading of the manuscript, Mr. Massimo Ilarioni (I&S Srl, Rignano sull’Arno, Florence) for the support in realizing and polishing the FCs, and Dr. Antonella Battisti (CNR-Nano, Pisa) for the fluorescence lifetimes measurements.
KeyWords: free space optical communication; FSO; luminescent solar concentrators; LSC; optical antennas; optical wireless communication; OWC; visible light communication; VLC
DOI: 10.1002/adom.202402367