To increase system capacity of underwater optical communications, we employ
the spatial domain to simultaneously transmit multiple orthogonal spatial
beams, each carrying an independent data channel. In this paper, we multiplex
and transmit four green orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams through a single
aperture. Moreover, we investigate the degrading effects of
scattering/turbidity, water current, and thermal gradient-induced turbulence,
and we find that thermal gradients cause the most distortions and turbidity
causes the most loss. We show systems results using two different data
generation techniques, one at 1064 nm for 10-Gbit/s/beam and one at 520 nm for
1-Gbit/s/beam, we use both techniques since present data-modulation
technologies are faster for infrared (IR) than for green. For the higher-rate
link, data is modulated in the IR, and OAM imprinting is performed in the green
using a specially-designed metasurface phase mask. For the lower rates, a green
laser diode is directly modulated. Finally, we show that inter-channel
crosstalk induced by thermal gradients can be mitigated using multi-channel
equalisation processing.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figure
