Abstract
We report the effect of the double Rayleigh backscattering (DRB) noise, in which the interference of the signal light with the double Rayleigh backscattered light, on the fiber-optic radio-frequency (RF) transfer system. Here, we theoretically analyze and experimentally demonstrate that the DRB noise within the fiber link will become the dominative noise on the fiber-optic RF transfer system once narrow linewidth lasers are used. The strong DRB noise is experimentally confirmed through the measurement of the effect of the coherent interference term of the signal light and the double Rayleigh backscattered light on the 100 km RF transfer system. Our results provide evidence that the conventional RF transfer technique with the telecommunications-grade lasers, in which the chromatic dispersion effect in the single-mode fiber is compensated by dispersion compensation fibers (DCFs), could be the better choice for high-performance RF transfer.
Highlights
The distribution of ultra-stable radio frequency (RF) standard plays an important role in numerous areas, such as global navigation system, fundamental physics, astrophysics [1]–[3]
We report the effect of the double Rayleigh backscattering (DRB) noise, in which the interference of the signal light with the double Rayleigh backscattered light, on the fiber-optic radio-frequency (RF) transfer system
Our results provide evidence that the conventional RF transfer technique with the telecommunications-grade lasers, in which the chromatic dispersion effect in the single-mode fiber is compensated by dispersion compensation fibers (DCFs), could be the better choice for high-performance RF transfer
Summary
The distribution of ultra-stable radio frequency (RF) standard plays an important role in numerous areas, such as global navigation system, fundamental physics, astrophysics [1]–[3]. The typical DCFs will introduce a higher attenuation loss of about 0.6 dB per kilometer, resulting in a lower received signal at the user sites To solve these problems, the fiber-optic RF transfer schemes by modulating the RF reference onto narrow linewidth lasers have been proposed and experimentally demonstrated [18], [19]. The lasers with the typical linewidth less than 100 Hz are adopted to remove the effect of the chromatic dispersion Based on this idea, Schediwy et al demonstrated a fiber-optic RF transfer technique with a low phase noise laser without dispersion compensation [18], [19]. Our results provide a guidance that RF transfer with the telecommunications-grade lasers over the chromatic dispersion compensated fiber link could be the better choice for high-performance RF transfer
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