Abstract
With the ever-increasing demand for data and the radio frequency spectrum becoming congested, free space optics (FSO) may find a niche for situations where fiber is too expensive or too difficult to install. FSO is a cross-disciplinary field that draws from radio and fiber communication, astronomy, and even quantum optics, and it has seen major advances over the last three decades. In this tutorial-style review, we provide a broad overview of many of the important topics required to design, develop, and research the next generation of FSO technology. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America