Abstract
We would like to report our research and development on Optical Inter-orbit Communication (Optical IOC) technology. NASDA has been developing Optical Inter-orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS) for a demonstration of Acquisition, Tracking, and Pointing (ATP) technology on orbit, as a key technical problem of Optical IOC, with ESA satellite ARTEMIS. Moreover, we have been conducting researchers on 1W-class high power optical amplifiers, namely Erbium doped fiver amplifiers (EDFA, λ=1550nm) and Neodymium doped fiber amplifiers (NDFA, λ=1060nm), to establish higher data rate (> 1Gbps) technology and much-smaller equipment technology, which will satisfy the requirements of future space activities. We already achieved 345mW amplification of double-clad NDFA (DC-NDFA). In this paper, we report our latest progress on fiber amplifiers. In addition, we discuss the results of trial manufacture of InGaAs-QD as an ATP sensor for wavelengths of NDFA and EDFA. The future of Optical IOC technology is also discussed.
