Fluorescent antenna based on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) for optical wireless communications

The use of fluorescent antennas in optical wireless communications (OWC) has been demonstrated previously, and it has been shown that it is an efficient method for enhancing receiver performance, providing both signal gain and a wide field of view (FoV). To achieve a high concentration gain at the receiver output, the selected fluorophores should have a high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), limited overlap between their absorption and emission spectra, and emit light that can be efficiently detected. In addition, to support a high modulation bandwidth, the photoluminescence (PL) lifetime of the fluorophore needs to be short. In this paper, we propose a new fluorescent antenna architecture based on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). Our results show that, due to the photophysical interactions between the energy donor and energy acceptor, the use of FRET simultaneously increases PLQY and reduces PL lifetime. Additionally, employing FRET leads to an increased Stokes shift, ensuring that the emitted light has longer wavelengths, thus reducing self-absorption. This shift can also increase the efficiency with which the fluorescence is detected by a typical silicon (Si) photodetector. Consequently, our OWC results show that a new FRET-based antenna can achieve a significantly higher concentration gain and a wider transmission bandwidth than a conventional non-FRET antenna, leading to much higher data rates.