Coherent optical communication is a high-speed, high-quality, and highly secure communication method, and coherent detection plays an extremely important role in coherent optical communication. High sensitivity coherent detection systems can significantly increase the distance of coherent optical communication. By studying the factors that affect the sensitivity of coherent detection, targeted corrections can be made to improve the detection sensitivity.

This paper first briefly describes the principle of the coherence detection, and summarizes the research progress in this field at home and abroad. Then the paper analyzes the influence of thermal noise, shot noise, wavefront distortion, polarization loss, spot size deviation, optical axis deflection, coupling efficiency, detector performance, preamplifier and other aspects on coherence detection sensitivity of wireless optical coherence detection system.

The results show that the influence of the thermal noise and shot noise of the system on the detection sensitivity can be minimized by controlling the local oscillator power. The wavefront distortion of signal light can be suppressed by adding an adaptive correction system. The polarization control compensation device can be used to compensate the polarization mismatch between signal light and local oscillator light. The deviation of spot size and optical axis deviation requires improving the processing level of hardware to reduce this error. The use of new detectors can improve the performance of detectors to a certain extent. The pre-amplifier can amplify weak signal light, which is crucial for improving detection sensitivity.

This article analyzes the factors that affect the sensitivity of wireless optical coherent detection, and summarizes the methods used by domestic and foreign scholars to improve detection sensitivity in recent years. It provides theoretical reference for improving the sensitivity of detection systems in practice, which has important significance for improving the performance of coherent optical communication systems.