We report experimental results of concurrent transfer of multiple optical frequencies, coherently generated from an optical frequency comb, over an 18 km free-space link with real-time compensation of atmospheric phase noise.
Optical frequency comb technology has been revolutionizing optical fields of ultra-precision metrology over two decades, connecting the SI unit standards of various optical clocks with utmost accuracy and stability. With an increasing demand for free-space communication and time/frequency transfer applications, the frequency comb is stretching its versatility even the outside of laboratory. Still, the environmental disturbances of free space degrade the excellent phase noise of the optical frequencies, hindering the reliable utilization of frequency comb at any desirable location. This research performs comb-to-comb synchronization over a 1.3-km Free-Space Optical link (FSO) with frequency stability of 3.80×10-15 at 0.1 s averaging time throughout the entire comb spectrum. Phase-locked loop compensates the Doppler shift of optical frequencies propagating atmospheric free-space channel, providing optical references for synchronizing distant frequency comb.
Generating multiple optical frequencies referenced to the frequency standard is an important task in optical clock dissemination and optical communication. An apparatus for frequency-comb-referenced generation of multiple optical frequencies is demonstrated for high-precision free-space transfer of multiple optical frequencies. The relative linewidth and frequency instability at each channel corresponds to sub-1 Hz and 1.06×10-15 at 10 s averaging time, respectively. During the free-space transfer, the refractive index change of transmission media caused by atmospheric turbulences induces phase and frequency noise on optical frequencies. These phase and frequency noise causes induced linewidth broadening and frequency shift in optical frequencies which can disturb the accurate frequency transfer. The proposed feedback loop with acousto-optic modulator can monitor and compensate phase/frequency noise on optical frequencies. As a result, a frequency-comb-referenced single optical mode is compensated with a high signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 80 dB. By sharing the same optical paths, this feedback loop is confirmed to be successfully transferred to the neighboring wavelength channels (a 100 GHz spaced channel). This result confirms our proposed system can transfer optical frequencies to the remote site in free-space without performance degradation.
High-precision optical frequency transfer through free-space links will enable advances in fields ranging from coherent optical communication and satellite Doppler ranging, to tests of general relativity and fundamental physics. Previous work has focused on two-way time and frequency transfer techniques using optical frequency combs. Here the authors show that a continuous-wave coherent link can exceed the fractional frequency stability of frequency-comb methods by an order of magnitude. They also highlight and discuss the technical hurdles to implementing similar links over the distances required to reach low Earth orbit.