522 Mb/s OFDM based laser data and power transfer using a GaAs photovoltaic cell

Abstract:
Laser power converters are a particular type of single junction photovoltaic (PV) cells. These cells achieve the highest values of power efficiency under the conditions of monochromatic illumination. In this talk, the additional capability of high speed data communication is shown for the first time for laser power converters. A vertical cavity surface emitting laser operating at 850 nm is used for data and power transmission. A gallium arsenide PV cell that is one of the most power efficient in the world - 58.2% for a received irradiance of 110 W/cm2 from 809 nm laser - is used as the receiver. Optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with optimised bit and power loading is applied for the most efficient use of the communication bandwidth. The demonstrated data rate of 522 Mb/s and PV efficiency of 42.3% under an intensity of 0.26 W/cm2 at a link distance of 2 m open up new possibilities for optical wireless information and power transfer in the Internet of Things era.

Biography:
John Fakidis was awarded the Diploma in electrical and computer engineering and the PhD in digital communications from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and the University of Edinburgh, UK in 2011 and 2017, respectively. He has been working collaboratively with the industrial partner Nokia, Bell Laboratories, Ireland on the optical wireless energy transfer for self-sufficient small cells. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the LiFi Research and Development Centre and the Institute for Digital Communications of the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the design and prototyping of optical wireless systems for high speed data communication and energy harvesting.