Coherent optical frequency transfer via 972-km fiber link

We demonstrate coherent optical frequency dissemination over a distance of 972 km by cascading two spans where the phase noise is passively compensated for.Instead of employing a phase discriminator and a phase locking loop in the conventional active phase control scheme,the passive phase noise cancellation is realized by feeding double-trip beat-note frequency to the driver of the acoustic optical modulator at the local site.This passive scheme exhibits fine robustness and reliability,making it suitable for long-distance and noisy fiber links.An optical regeneration station is used in the link for signal amplification and cascaded transmission.The phase noise cancellation and transfer instability of the 972-km link is investigated,and transfer instability of 1.1×10^(-19)at 10^(4)s is achieved.This work provides a promising method for realizing optical frequency distribution over thousands of kilometers by using fiber links.

Robust free-space optical frequency transfer in time-varying link distances conditions

Future inter-satellite clock comparison on high orbit will require optical time and frequency transmission technology between moving objects.Here,we demonstrate robust optical frequency transmission under the condition of variable link distance.This variable link is accomplished by the relative motion of a single telescope fixed on the experimental platform to a corner-cube reflector(CCR)installed on a sliding guide.Two acousto–optic modulators with different frequencies are used to separate forward signal from backward signal.With active phase noise suppression,when the CCR moves back and forth at a constant velocity of 20 cm/s and an acceleration of 20 cm/s^(2),we achieve the best frequency stability of 1.9×10^(-16) at 1 s and 7.9×10^(-19) at 1000 s indoors.This work paves the way for future studying optical frequency transfer between ultra-high-orbit satellites.

Coherent Transfer of Optical Frequency over 112 km with Instability at the 10^(-20) Level

We demonstrate optical-carrier transfer over a 112-km single-span urban fiber link, By actively compensating the phase noise induced along the fiber link, a noise suppression of 55 dB at 1 Hz is obtained. A fractional frequency instability of 2.5× 10^-16 at i s is achieved, and reaching 7.5× 10^-20 at 10000 s. The system is stable and able to run for a long time. This work will contribute to optical frequency distribution and remote comparison among atomic clocks.

Determination of the orthometric height difference based on optical fiber frequency transfer technique

The development of remote frequency transfer techniques,especially the appearance of optical clocks with unprecedented stability,has prompted geoscientists to study their applications in geodesy.Using remote frequency transfer technique,by frequency comparison of two optical clocks at two points P and Q connected by optical fibers,one can measure the signal’s frequency shift between them,and the geopotential difference between them can be determined based on the gravity frequency shift equation.Given the orthometric height of P,the orthometric height of Q can be determined.Since the present stability of the optical clock has achieved 1×10^(-18) or better and comparing the frequency transfer via optical fiber provides stability at 10^(-19) level,the optical clock network enables determining the orthometric height at centimeter-level.This study provides a formulation to determine the height diffe rence at one-centimeter level between two points on the ground based on the optical fiber frequency transfer technique.

Delay Effect on Coherent Transfer of Optical Frequency Based on a Triple-Pass Scheme

We demonstrate a triple-pass scheme for coherent transfer of optical frequency and the delay effect on the fiber phase noise compensation. It is theoretically proved that the delay effect consists of both fiber delay and servo delay. The delay effect confines the servo bandwidth within 1/8 and induces a residual fiber phase noise after noise compensation. For a 25-km-long fiber, the servo bandwidth is found to be around 1 k Hz, and the fiber phase noise is suppressed approaching to the theoretical limitation. The triple-pass scheme enables the simultaneous transfer of optical frequency to multiple remote users. The performance of noise compensator in the triple-pass scheme can achieve a similar level result compared with that in the double-pass scheme.

Transfer of laser frequency from 729 nm to 1.5 μm with precision at the level of 10^(−20)

By using a self-reference transfer oscillator method,two individual 1560 nm lasers with about 1.2 GHz frequency difference were phase locked to a 729 nm ultra-stable laser at two preset ratios.By measuring the beat frequency of the two 1560 nm lasers,fractional instabilities of 2×10^(−17) at 1 s and 2×10^(−20) at 10,000 s averaging time were obtained,and the relative offset compared with the theoretical value was 4.2×10^(−21)±4.5×10^(−20).The frequency ratio of them was evaluated to a level of 1.3×10^(−20) in one day’s data acquisition.This work was a preparation for remote comparison of optical clocks through optical fiber links.The technique can also be used to synthesize ultra-stable lasers at other wavelengths.