Distributed laser energy deposition enables fog-resilient optical communications
Abstract
Fog and clouds remain major obstacles to free-space optical (FSO) communications because micron-sized droplets can impose tens of decibels of attenuation. Ultrashort laser filamentation can transiently clear fog in laboratory-scale experiments, but its extension to atmospheric-scale propagation has remained uncertain. Here we demonstrate laser-assisted fog clearing under atmospheric-scale propagation conditions over a 140-m optical path using a high-energy, high-average-power picosecond laser and weak focusing to sustain extended multifilamentation. A steady-state transparent channel approximately 2 cm in diameter restores up to 12 dB of transmission for an independent optical beam. Increasing the clearing-laser pulse energy primarily extends the multifilament region while maintaining a nearly constant longitudinally averaged deposited energy per unit length of ~2 mJ/m over the measured bundle length. This low average deposition, together with self-sustained filament propagation through dense fog, provides a favorable scaling route toward weather-resilient optical links.
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BibTeX
@misc{schroeder2026distributed,
title = {{Distributed laser energy deposition enables fog-resilient optical communications}},
author = {Malte C. Schroeder and Victor Moreno and Christophe Coreixas and Jonas Latt and Jean-Pierre Wolf},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.31132},
eprint = {2609.31132},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31132},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Distributed laser energy deposition enables fog-resilient optical communications
AU - Malte C. Schroeder
AU - Victor Moreno
AU - Christophe Coreixas
AU - Jonas Latt
AU - Jean-Pierre Wolf
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/25
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.31132
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31132
AB - Fog and clouds remain major obstacles to free-space optical (FSO) communications because micron-sized droplets can impose tens of decibels of attenuation. Ultrashort laser filamentation can transiently clear fog in laboratory-scale experiments, but its extension to atmospheric-scale propagation has remained uncertain. Here we demonstrate laser-assisted fog clearing under atmospheric-scale propagation conditions over a 140-m optical path using a high-energy, high-average-power picosecond laser and weak focusing to sustain extended multifilamentation. A steady-state transparent channel approximately 2 cm in diameter restores up to 12 dB of transmission for an independent optical beam. Increasing the clearing-laser pulse energy primarily extends the multifilament region while maintaining a nearly constant longitudinally averaged deposited energy per unit length of ~2 mJ/m over the measured bundle length. This low average deposition, together with self-sustained filament propagation through dense fog, provides a favorable scaling route toward weather-resilient optical links.
ER -