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arXiv:1911.01215 · New Journal of Physics

Combining fiber Brillouin amplification with a repeater laser station for fiber-based optical frequency dissemination over 1400 km

Sebastian Koke, Alexander Kühl, Thomas Waterholter, S. M. F. Raupach, Olivier Lopez, Etienne Cantin, Nicolas Quintin, Anne Amy‐Klein, Paul-Éric Pottie, Gesine Grosche

Published Nov 29, 2019• 30 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract We investigate optical frequency dissemination over a 1400 km long fiber link in looped configuration over a pair of underground fibers between Braunschweig and Strasbourg. This fiber link is the first to combine fiber Brillouin amplifiers with a repeater laser station. Phase-coherent operation over more than five days is demonstrated. We analyze the repeatability of the performance over four campaigns and present results of 65 d in total. The weighted mean of the fractional frequency offset of the transferred optical frequency over the complete data set is (−1.1 ± 0.4)×10–20. By analyzing the stabilization signals of the two individual fibers, the correlation of the phase noise on the two fibers is shown to be >98%.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/ab5d95

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Abstract We investigate optical frequency dissemination over a 1400 km long fiber link in looped configuration over a pair of underground fibers between Braunschweig and Strasbourg. This fiber link is the first to combine fiber Brillouin amplifiers with a repeater laser station. Phase-coherent operation over more than five days is demonstrated. We analyze the repeatability of the performance over four campaigns and present results of 65 d in total. The weighted mean of the fractional frequency offset of the transferred optical frequency over the complete data set is (−1.1 ± 0.4)×10–20. By analyzing the stabilization signals of the two individual fibers, the correlation of the phase noise on the two fibers is shown to be >98%.
In long-distance, optical continuous-wave frequency transfer via fiber, remote bidirectional Er³ ⁺ -doped fiber amplifiers are commonly used to mitigate signal attenuation. We demonstrate for the first time the ultrastable transfer of an optical frequency using a remote fiber Brillouin amplifier, placed in a server room along the link. Using it as the only means of remote amplification, on a 660 km loop of installed underground fiber we bridge distances of 250 km and 160 km between amplifications. Over several days of uninterrupted measurement, we find an instability of the frequency transfer (Allan deviation of Λ-weighted data with 1 s gate time) of around 1 × 10(-19) and less for averaging times longer than 3000 s. The modified Allan deviation reaches 3 × 10(-19) at an averaging time of 100 s. Beyond 100 s it follows the interferometer noise floor, and for averaging times longer than 1000 s the modified Allan deviation is in the 10(-20) range. A conservative value of the overall accuracy is 1 × 10(-19)
Abstract The details of fiber Brillouin amplifier modules developed for optical frequency dissemination and installed on the fiber link between Braunschweig and Strasbourg for performing optical clock comparisons are described and documented. The performance of these fiber Brillouin amplification modules is characterized in terms of gain, one‐way phase shift, and signal‐to‐noise ratio across a wide parameter space of signal and pump powers. Finally, upper estimates are derived for the frequency transfer uncertainty contributions resulting from the non‐reciprocity induced by the fiber Brillouin amplifier modules based on the characterized one‐way phase shift.
Abstract We introduce multi-branch repeater laser stations (MLSs) for the dissemination of an ultra-stable signal from one point to multiple users and the simultaneous evaluation of the stability and accuracy of multiple links. We perform the study of the noise floor of this new instrument. We present then an optical fiber network of 4800 km built with three MLSs and 13 repeater laser stations (RLSs). We show the multi-user optical frequency dissemination on four links totalizing 2198 km with uncertainties below 1.1 × 10 −19 . The robustness of the network over two years is presented and stability and accuracy at 10 7 seconds integration time are finally showed.
We demonstrate coherent optical frequency dissemination over a distance of 972 km by cascading two spans where the phase noise is passively compensated for. Instead of employing a phase discriminator and a phase locking loop in the conventional active phase control scheme, the passive phase noise cancellation is realized by feeding double-trip beat-note frequency to the driver of the acoustic optical modulator at the local site. This passive scheme exhibits fine robustness and reliability, making it suitable for long-distance and noisy fiber links. An optical regeneration station is used in the link for signal amplification and cascaded transmission. The phase noise cancellation and transfer instability of the 972-km link is investigated, and transfer instability of 1.1 × 10−19 at 104 s is achieved. This work provides a promising method for realizing optical frequency distribution over thousands of kilometers by using fiber links.
Exploiting the outstanding performance of optical atomic clocks for improved timekeeping, relativistic geodesy, and fundamental physics beyond the standard model demands comparing distant state-of-the-art optical clocks. Interferometric optical fiber links have been demonstrated as an eminent method for such frequency comparisons over distances up to thousands of kilometers. However, for such distances, the optical fiber attenuation mandates signal amplification. Fiber Brillouin amplification (FBA) has been proven as an efficient amplification technique for coherent frequency transfer. Demonstrated FBA schemes have been designed based on costly narrow-linewidth pump lasers and analog pump-to-signal phase locking schemes. Furthermore, the high pump power requirement of these FBAs hinders the integration of FBA-based frequency dissemination on fiber connections for shared telecommunication signals in the C-band. In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel FBA module (FBAM) employing cost-effective distributed feedback (DFB) pump lasers assisted by a digital phase locking scheme based on a field programmable gated array. The new FBAM is compact, cost-effective, and directly applicable to different bands, which opens up new opportunities to establish a frequency metrology infrastructure within existing telecommunication fiber networks. Additionally, the small-footprint of the DFB-FBAM allows for frequent amplification stages with lower pump power to reach continental scale optical metrology links with an optimized signal-to-noise ratio. We characterized the DFB-FBAM’s frequency transfer uncertainty using a two-way layout over an in-lab 100 km long optical fiber link and reach a fractional frequency instability of 9.3 × 10−22 at a 10 ks integration time. The DFB-FBAM characterizations show uncertainty contributions of (−2.1 ± 3.3) × 10−22 and below for averaging times >100 ks. For the first time, we assess the temporal Brillouin frequency shift variations in an underground fiber link and implement a scheme to track these changes in a remote FBAM.