The protective windows on the telescopes of the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration's ground terminal on White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, reflect the desert sunset.

Optical and Quantum Communications

We research and develop a wide range of space, airborne, and terrestrial communication systems. These systems include hardware for a terminal that is used in a near-Earth wideband relay laser communication system and prototypes of a beam director that will be integrated in a laser communication system. Our team has created the most sensitive high-data-rate laser communications links ever developed. We have also begun new research into extending the range and utility of undersea communication transceivers.

Featured Projects

An illustration of data being sent across a laser from a small satellite to a ground station on Earth.
laser communications

TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD)

The laser communications payload has delivered terabytes of data from a satellite to Earth at record-breaking rates that will transform future science missions.
A rendition of a communications payload on its spacecraft host, with laser links over the Earth connecting Hawaii and California.
laser communications

Laser Communications Relay Demonstration

Optical communications technologies decades in the making at Lincoln Laboratory were transferred to NASA for its first two-way laser relay communications system.
The Laboratory's novel optical communication system was integrated on a robotic undersea vehicle.
optical systems

Undersea Optical Communications

A system that enables robust, long-distance communications between underwater vehicles exploits laser technology.
The International Space Station will be outfitted with our ILLUMA-T laser terminal to provide optical communications.
lasers

ILLUMA-T

The ILLUMA-T will enable optical communications on the International Space Station.
The high-rate, entangled-photon source technologies will be integrated into the optical fiber quantum network test bed.
quantum systems and science

Quantum Network Test Bed

Lincoln Laboratory and MIT researchers are creating a shared quantum network test bed that will be used for developing and realistic testing of applications that take advantage of quantum science's potential to enable diverse, advanced communication, sensing, and computing systems.

Latest News

A simulated image of a black hole's photon ring.

TBIRD technology could help image black holes' photon rings

Nov 6
At Kennedy Space Center, Laboratory staff members Justin Dunbeck (left) and Steven Constantine unpack and examine the Optical Communications System payload for NASA's Artemis II mission to the Moon. Photo: NASA/Glenn Benson.

First communications user terminal demonstrated in two-way laser relay prepares for Moon flyby

Oct 18
A payload shown above the Gulf of California, just after it was jettisoned by a robotic arm from the International Space Station into orbit.
In the Media

Lift-off for space lasers

Oct 1
Optics & Photonics News
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Laboratory Stories

I’ve come to appreciate the responsibility we have at the Laboratory to provide analysis, guidance, and technology for national defense, and the role that I can play in supporting that mission.

Nicholas Hardy

Systems Engineer
Communication Systems
Optical and Quantum Communications
An outdoor portrait photograph of Nicholas Hardy.
This work style is exceptionally fulfilling for me; I never get bored.

Catherine Lockton

Systems Engineer
Communication Systems
Optical and Quantum Communications
An indoor portrait photograph of Catherine Lockton.
My favorite aspect of my work is seeing a project through to the prototype or operational stage — observing a physical system achieve its intended performance is incredible.

Kat Riesing

Systems Engineer
Communication Systems
Optical and Quantum Communications
A portrait photograph of Kat Riesing outdoors in wooded environment.
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Advancing Our Research

Events

May
20 - 21

Lincoln Laboratory Communications Workshop (LLCW) 2025

MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Massachusetts
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Featured Publications

Quantum simulator of an open quantum system using superconducting qubits: exciton transport in photosynthetic complexes

Oct 1
New J. Phys., Vol. 14, October 2012, 105013.

Photonic ADC: overcoming the bottleneck of electronic jitter

Feb 13
Opt. Express, Vol. 20, No. 4, 13 February 2012, pp. 4454-4469.

Compact external-cavity semiconductor mode-locked laser with quantum-well-intermixed modulator and saturable absorber

Oct 9
IPC11, IEEE Photonics Conf., 9-13 October 2011, pp. 753-754.
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