Thermal Source-based BPSK Signaling over Free-space Optical Communication Link with Improvements from Adaptive Optics

In this paper we present BER results for thermal source-based BPSK signaling over an 800m long free-space optical (FSO) communication link established at the University of Arizona. By applying the adaptive optics, to compensate for wavefront distortions, we demonstrate improvements in the BERs in a weak atmospheric turbulence regime.