Solar rejection in laser based underwater communication systems

This article provides a numerical study of the expected improvements in an underwater optical system given by a single-mode laser diode operating within a Fraunhofer line in a coastal water type. The system performance is examined for a silicon PIN direct-detection receiver in the euphotic zone. The solar irradiance, modelled as white noise, is evaluated when using a lithium niobate interference and a birefringent filter with different field-of-view (FOV) characteristics in a clear sky situation. The results of this analysis show the inverse dependence of the signal-to-noise (SNR) on the FOV, along with the significant improvement in the receiver sensitivity given by a narrow optical bandpass filter (OBPF)