Point-to-point stabilized optical frequency transfer with active optics

Benjamin P. Dix-Matthews (), Sascha W. Schediwy, David R. Gozzard, Etienne Savalle, François-Xavier Esnault, Thomas Lévèque, Charles Gravestock, Darlene D’Mello, Skevos Karpathakis, Michael Tobar and Peter Wolf
Additional contact information
Benjamin P. Dix-Matthews: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, The University of Western Australia
Sascha W. Schediwy: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, The University of Western Australia
David R. Gozzard: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, The University of Western Australia
Etienne Savalle: SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, LNE
François-Xavier Esnault: Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES)
Thomas Lévèque: Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES)
Charles Gravestock: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, The University of Western Australia
Darlene D’Mello: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, The University of Western Australia
Skevos Karpathakis: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, The University of Western Australia
Michael Tobar: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, The University of Western Australia
Peter Wolf: SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, LNE

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Timescale comparison between optical atomic clocks over ground-to-space and terrestrial free-space laser links will have enormous benefits for fundamental and applied sciences. However, atmospheric turbulence creates phase noise and beam wander that degrade the measurement precision. Here we report on phase-stabilized optical frequency transfer over a 265 m horizontal point-to-point free-space link between optical terminals with active tip-tilt mirrors to suppress beam wander, in a compact, human-portable set-up. A phase-stabilized 715 m underground optical fiber link between the two terminals is used to measure the performance of the free-space link. The active optical terminals enable continuous, cycle-slip free, coherent transmission over periods longer than an hour. In this work, we achieve residual instabilities of 2.7 × 10−6 rad2 Hz−1 at 1 Hz in phase, and 1.6 × 10−19 at 40 s of integration in fractional frequency; this performance surpasses the best optical atomic clocks, ensuring clock-limited frequency comparison over turbulent free-space links.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20591-5

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