Optical frequency transfer via a 660 km underground fiber link using a remote Brillouin amplifier

Ultra-long-distance distribution of low-phase-noise reference lightwave for optical communications

The remote delivery of optical reference with highly stable oscillation frequency and carrier phase can eliminate the need of digital signal processing for the estimation of these parameters in optical communication. The distribution distance of the optical reference has been limited, however. In this paper, an optical reference distribution over 12,600 km is achieved while maintaining low-noise characteristics, using an ultra-narrow-linewidth laser as a reference source and a fiber Bragg grating filter for noise removal. The distributed optical reference enables 10 GBaud, 5 wavelength-division-multiplexed dual-polarization 64QAM data transmission without using carrier phase estimation, which significantly reduces off-line signal processing time. In the future, this method can enable all coherent optical signals in the network to be synchronized to a common reference ideally, thereby improving overall energy efficiency and cost.

Performance of digital servos in an optical frequency transfer network

We demonstrate the use of three kinds of flexible digital servos for the stabilization of the optical fiber link, the interferometer temperature, and the polarization of the transmitted light at the remote site, respectively. The main fiber noise cancellation digital servo provides a large phase detection range (∼2¹⁰π radians), automatic relock function, and low cycle-slip rate over a 62 km field-deployed fiber link achieved by utilizing a feedback optical actuator of an acousto-optic modulator fed by a voltage-controlled oscillator. The temperature control and polarization control digital servos enable that the temperature of the interferometer can be stabilized at a stability of 0.01 K and the data uptime is enhanced from 85.5% to 99.9% by implementing the polarization controller. The results demonstrate that the performance of the three digital servos is sufficient for high-precision optical frequency transfer applications and indicates comparable performance to existing analog optical frequency control systems. The full digital controlled optical frequency transfer method demonstrated here provides guidance for the development of a low-cost, low-complexity, and high-reliability optical frequency transfer system.

Raman/EDFA hybrid bidirectional amplifier for fiber-optic time and frequency synchronization

Herein, we verify that a Raman/EDFA hybrid amplifier can improve the stability of fiber-optic time and frequency synchronization systems compared to the Er³⁺-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), owing to its higher gain and lower noise figure (NF) performance. We studied the variation law of Raman gain efficiency for a fiber Raman amplifier (FRA) as a function of pump power and input signal power, designed a bidirectional Raman/EDFA hybrid amplifier, and proved that equivalent NF below 0 dB can be obtained. Finally, hybrid amplifiers were compared to EDFAs in a free-running frequency synchronization system. The transfer stabilities reached 1.9678 × 10^-13/1 s and 2.0248 × 10^-13/1 s when FRA + EDFA and EDFA + FRA configurations were used, respectively, both exhibiting better performance than the stability of 3.0905 × 10^-13/1 s obtained by EDFA.

Optical frequency distribution using laser repeater stations with planar lightwave circuits

We report a cascaded optical fiber link which connects laboratories in RIKEN, the University of Tokyo, and NTT within a 100-km region using a transfer light at 1397 nm, a subharmonic of the Sr clock frequency. The multiple cascaded link employing several laser repeater stations benefits from a wide feedback bandwidth for fiber noise compensation, which allows constructing optical lattice clock networks based on the master-slave configuration. We developed the laser repeater stations based on planar lightwave circuits to significantly reduce the interferometer noise for improved link stability. We implemented a 240-km-long cascaded link in a UTokyo-NTT-UTokyo loop using light sent from RIKEN via a 30-km-long link. In environments with large fiber noise, the link instability is 3 × 10^-16 at an averaging time of 1 s and reaches 1 × 10^-18 at 2,600 s.

Stable frequency dissemination over multi-access fiber loop link with optical comb

An optical comb based stable frequency dissemination system is proposed and experimentally demonstrated over a multi-access optical fiber loop link. In the system, a new technique based on optical-microwave phase locking loop is designed for phase compensation. In the experiment, a mode-locked fiber laser at a repetition rate of 100 MHz is used to provide an optical source at local site, then it transmits along a 150 km fiber loop link. To testify the proposed system, two accessing nodes are measured in the loop link. The dissemination frequency instability is measured at 3.65 × 10^-15/1 s and 7.8 × 10^-18/1000 s at the intermediate node. The similar performance is shown at the other node. Hence, the system has the potential application in high-precision frequency transmission system via a long-haul multi-access loop link.

Ultra-low noise optical injection locking amplifier with AOM-based coherent detection scheme

A novel optical injection locking amplifier with acousto-optic modulator based phase modulation and a coherent detection scheme for optical frequency transfer applications is experimentally demonstrated in this study. A commercial distributed feedback diode laser is injection-locked to the resonant frequency of the optical signal with an optical fiber path length of hundreds of kilometers. This provides approximately 59 dB gain and ensures that the input carrier frequency fractional stability can be as good as 10-20 at 1000 s. The amplifier was tested for the transfer of a commercial narrow-linewidth laser in a 180 km fiber link to a remote site with only a single amplification step. The transferred frequency at the remote end reached 10-20 at 20000 s, which is suitable for optical frequency distribution and remote comparison between optical atomic clocks.

Atomic clocks for geodesy

We review experimental progress on optical atomic clocks and frequency transfer, and consider the prospects of using these technologies for geodetic measurements. Today, optical atomic frequency standards have reached relative frequency inaccuracies below 10^-17, opening new fields of fundamental and applied research. The dependence of atomic frequencies on the gravitational potential makes atomic clocks ideal candidates for the search for deviations in the predictions of Einstein's general relativity, tests of modern unifying theories and the development of new gravity field sensors. In this review, we introduce the concepts of optical atomic clocks and present the status of international clock development and comparison. Besides further improvement in stability and accuracy of today's best clocks, a large effort is put into increasing the reliability and technological readiness for applications outside of specialized laboratories with compact, portable devices. With relative frequency uncertainties of 10^-18, comparisons of optical frequency standards are foreseen to contribute together with satellite and terrestrial data to the precise determination of fundamental height reference systems in geodesy with a resolution at the cm-level. The long-term stability of atomic standards will deliver excellent long-term height references for geodetic measurements and for the modelling and understanding of our Earth.

Studying the fundamental limit of optical fiber links to the 10-21 level

We present a hybrid fiber link combining effective optical frequency transfer and evaluation of performances with a self-synchronized two-way comparison. It enables us to detect the round-trip fiber noise and each of the forward and backward one-way fiber noises simultaneously. The various signals acquired with this setup allow us to study quantitatively several properties of optical fiber links. We check the reciprocity of the accumulated noise forth and back over a bi-directional fiber to the level of 3.1(±3.9) × 10^-20 based on a 160000s continuous data. We also analyze the noise correlation between two adjacent fibers and show the first experimental evidence of interferometric noise at very low Fourier frequency. We estimate redundantly and consistently the stability and accuracy of the transferred optical frequency over 43 km at 4 × 10^-21 level after 16 days of integration and demonstrate that a frequency comparison with instability as low as 8 × 10^-18 would be achievable with uni-directional fibers in urban area.

Wavelength conversion technique for optical frequency dissemination applications

We demonstrate coherent wavelength conversion capable of covering the entire C-band by modulating the incoming optical carrier with a compact Fabry-Perot cavity embedded phase modulator and by optical injection locking a semiconductor laser to a tone of the generated optical frequency comb. The phase noise of the converted optical carrier over 1 THz frequency interval is measured to be -40 dBc/Hz at 10 Hz offset and the frequency stability is better than 2 × 10(-17) level for averaging times >1000 s, making this technique a promising solution for comparisons of state-of-the-art optical clocks over complex fiber networks.

Optical injection locking-based amplification in phase-coherent transfer of optical frequencies

We demonstrate the use of an optical injection phase locked loop (OIPLL) as a regenerative amplifier for optical frequency transfer applications. The optical injection locking provides high gain within a narrow bandwidth (<100  MHz) and is capable of preserving the fractional frequency stability of the incoming carrier to better than 10(-18) at 1000 s. The OIPLL was tested in the field as a mid-span amplifier for the transfer of an ultrastable optical carrier, stabilized to an optical frequency standard, over a 292 km long installed dark fiber link. The transferred frequency at the remote end reached a fractional frequency instability of less than 1×10(-19) at averaging time of 3200 s.

In-field Raman amplification on coherent optical fiber links for frequency metrology

Distributed Raman amplification (DRA) is widely exploited for the transmission of broadband, modulated signals used in data links, but not yet in coherent optical links for frequency metrology, where the requirements are rather different. After preliminary tests on fiber spools, in this paper we deeper investigate Raman amplification on deployed in-field optical metrological links. We actually test a Doppler-stabilized optical link both on a 94 km-long metro-network implementation with multiplexed ITU data channels and on a 180 km-long dedicated fiber haul connecting two cities, where DRA is employed in combination with Erbium-doped fiber amplification (EDFA). The performance of DRA is detailed in both experiments, indicating that it does not introduce noticeable penalties for the metrological signal or for the ITU data channels. We hence show that Raman amplification of metrological signals can be compatible with a wavelength division multiplexing architecture and that it can be used as an alternative or in combination with dedicated bidirectional EDFAs. No deterioration is noticed in the coherence properties of the delivered signal, which attains frequency instability at the 10(-19) level in both cases. This study can be of interest also in view of the undergoing deployment of continental fiber networks for frequency metrology.