Photon counting detector arrays are commonly used for free-space optical communications in deep space. Such detector arrays—by virtue of their size—help in the collection of the optical signal even when there is some misalignment between the transmitter and receiver systems. In this paper, we argue that, for the common Gaussian beam profile, a detector array receiver is more useful for minimizing the probability of error than a single detector receiver of the same dimensions. Furthermore, the improvement in the error probability is more pronounced for low signal-to-noise ratio conditions, and the probability of error decreases monotonically as a function of the number of detectors in the array. However, communication with detector arrays results in a larger computational and hardware complexity at the receiver.

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带探测器阵列的自由空间光通信：数学分析

光子计数探测器阵列通常用于深空的自由空间光通信。即使在发射器和接收器系统之间存在一些未对准的情况下，此类探测器阵列（凭借其尺寸）也有助于收集光信号。在本文中，我们认为，对于常见的高斯光束轮廓，探测器阵列接收器比相同尺寸的单个探测器接收器更有助于最小化错误概率。此外，对于低信噪比条件，错误概率的改善更为明显，并且作为阵列中检测器数量的函数，错误概率单调下降。然而，与检测器阵列的通信导致接收器处更大的计算和硬件复杂性。