Precise pointing angle deviation measurement for beaconless laser communication.

How to measure the pointing angle precisely without the beacon light is crucial for beaconless laser communication. The conventional intensity method directly measures the intensity of a part of the communication signal beam, which has low sensitivity. We propose the characteristic signal method by superimposing a low-frequency sinusoidal signal on the communication signal to promote the measuring sensitivity. Simultaneously, a fast cyclic cross-correlation algorithm is used to reduce operational complexity. Compared with the experimental results of the direct intensity method, the proposed method can improve the measuring sensitivity about 9.17 dB and increase the power budget for communication about 1.96 dB.