Abstract
Comparing and synchronizing atomic clocks between distant laboratories with ultra-stable frequency transfer are essential procedures in many fields of fundamental and applied science. Existing conventional methods for frequency transfer based on satellite links, however, are insufficient for the requirements of many applications. In order to achieve high-precision microwave frequency transfer over a thousand kilometers of fiber and to construct a fiber-based microwave transfer network, we propose a cascaded system for microwave frequency transfer consisting of three 100-km single-span spooled fiber links using an improved electronic phase compensation scheme. The transfer instability measured for the microwave signal reaches 1.1 × 10−14 at 1 s and 6.8 × 10−18 at 105 s, which agrees with the root-sum-square of each span contribution. It is feasible to extend the length of the fiber-based microwave frequency transfer up to 1200 km using 4 stages of our cascaded system, which is still sufficient to transfer modern cold atom microwave frequency standards. Moreover, the transfer instability of 9.0 × 10−15 at 1 s and 9.0 × 10−18 at 105 s for a 100-MHz signal is achieved. The residual phase noise power spectral density of the 300-km cascaded link measured at 100-MHz is also obtained. The rejection frequency bandwidth of the cascaded link is limited by the propagation delay of one single-span link.
Highlights
Long-haul and high-precision frequency transfer between distant laboratories plays a crucial role in numerous fields of fundamental and applied science, such as time and frequency metrology [1,2], fundamental physics [3,4], and geodesy [5]
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We have demonstrated a 300-km cascaded link consisting of three single-span links for microwave frequency transfer using electronic phase compensation
Summary
Long-haul and high-precision frequency transfer between distant laboratories plays a crucial role in numerous fields of fundamental and applied science, such as time and frequency metrology [1,2], fundamental physics [3,4], and geodesy [5]. The synchronization of distributed systems (such as phased-array radio telescopes [6,7,8], very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) [9,10], and multistatic radar systems [11,12]) are applications. Remote frequency comparison and synchronization is usually performed based on satellite links, including two-way satellite time and frequency transfer (TWSTT) as well as global positioning system (GPS) carrier-phase observations. Taking advantage of the low loss, high reliability and active phase stabilization potential of optical fiber, high stability has been demonstrated for direct optical frequency transfer [14,15,16,17] and radio-frequency (RF) transmission using the intensity modulation of an optical carrier [18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25] over fiber links.
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