Free-space coherent optical communication with orbital angular, momentum multiplexing/demultiplexing using a hybrid 3D photonic integrated circuit.

We demonstrate free-space space-division-multiplexing (SDM) with 15 orbital angular momentum (OAM) states using a three-dimensional (3D) photonic integrated circuit (PIC). The hybrid device consists of a silica planar lightwave circuit (PLC) coupled to a 3D waveguide circuit to multiplex/demultiplex OAM states. The low excess loss hybrid device is used in individual and two simultaneous OAM states multiplexing and demultiplexing link experiments with a 20 Gb/s, 1.67 b/s/Hz quadrature phase shift keyed (QPSK) signal, which shows error-free performance for 379,960 tested bits for all OAM states.