Coherent Optical Frequency Transfer via a 490 km Noisy Fiber Link

Abstract

We demonstrate the coherent transfer of an ultrastable optical frequency reference over a 490 km noisy field fiber link. The fiber-induced phase noise power spectrum density per-unit-length at 1 Hz offset frequency can reach up to 510 rad2⋅Hz−1⋅km−1, which is much higher than the fiber noise observed in previous reports. This extreme level of phase noise is mainly due to the fiber link laying underground along the highway. Appropriate phase-locked loop parameters are chosen to complete the active compensation of fiber noise by measuring the intensity fluctuation of additional phase noise and designing a homemade digital frequency division phase discriminator with a large phase detection range of 212 π rad. Finally, a noise suppression intensity of approximately 40 dB at 1 Hz is obtained, with fractional frequency instability of 1.1 × 10−14 at 1 s averaging time, and 3.7 × 10−19 at 10000 s. The transfer system will be used for remote atomic clock comparisons and optical frequency distribution over a long-distance communication network established in China.