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Long distance phase-coherent link between near- and mid-infrared frequency reference

Bérengère Argence, Bruno Chanteau, Olivier Lopez, Christian Chardonnet, C. Daussy, Benoît Darquié, Anne Amy‐Klein, Daniele Nicolodi, Michel Abgrall, Yann Le Coq, Giorgio Santarelli

Published Jul 21, 2013• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We present a new method for accurate mid-infrared frequency measurements and stabilization to a near-infrared ultra-stable frequency reference, transmitted with a long-distance fibre link and continuously monitored against state-of-the- art atomic fountain clocks. We demonstrate the frequency stabilization of a mid-infrared laser with fractional stability better than 4x10(-1)4 at 1 s averaging. This new stabilization scheme gives us the ability to transfer frequency stability in the range of 10(-1)5 or even better, currently accessible in the near-infrared or in the visible, to mid-infrared lasers in a wide frequency range.

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IEEE International Conference on High Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR)•May 20, 2025•0 citations
We present a new method for accurate mid-infrared frequency measurements and stabilization to a near-infrared ultra-stable frequency reference, transmitted with a long-distance fibre link and continuously monitored against state-of-the- art atomic fountain clocks. We demonstrate the frequency stabilization of a mid-infrared laser with fractional stability better than 4x10(-1)4 at 1 s averaging. This new stabilization scheme gives us the ability to transfer frequency stability in the range of 10(-1)5 or even better, currently accessible in the near-infrared or in the visible, to mid-infrared lasers in a wide frequency range.
We report an optical link of 540 km for ultrastable frequency distribution over the Internet fiber network. The phase-noise compensated link shows a fractional frequency instability in full bandwidth of 3 × 10 −14 at one second measurement time and 2 × 10 −18 at 30 000 s. This work is a significant step towards a sustainable wide area ultrastable optical frequency distribution and comparison network. Time transfer was demonstrated simultaneously on the same link and led to an absolute time accuracy (250 ps) and long-term timing stability (20 ps) which outperform the conventional satellite transfer methods by one order of magnitude. Current development addresses the question of multiple users distribution in the same metropolitan area. We demonstrate on-line extraction and first results show frequency stability at the same level as with conventional link. We also report an application to coherent frequency transfer to the mid-infrared. We demonstrate the frequency stabilisation of a mid-infrared laser to the near-infrared frequency reference transferred through the optical link. Fractional stability better than 4 × 10 −14 at 1 s averaging time was obtained, opening the way to ultrahigh resolution spectroscopy of molecular rovibrational transitions.
The transfer of ultra-stable frequencies between distant laboratories is required by many applications in time and frequency metrology, fundamental physics, particle accelerators and astrophysics. This thesis describes the development of ultra-stable optical links over distances from 86 km to 300 km. The long-term objective is to connect the main European National Metrology Institutes with optical links extending up to 1000 km. The optical link is based on the transfer of the optical phase of an ultra-stable laser emitting light of wavelength 1542 nm through an optical fiber of the telecommunication network. For that purpose, ultra-stable cavity-stabilized lasers and fiber-stabilized lasers have been developed. The fractional instability of cavity-stabilized laser is approximately 10-15 at 1s integration time. The fiber-stabilized lasers are robust, compact, simple, tunable and their frequency noise is comparable to that of the cavity-stabilized laser for Fourier frequencies higher than a few tens of Hertz. Optical links were first demonstrated on 86 km and 172 km using dedicated fibers connecting the laboratories LNE-SYRTE and LPL. Fractional frequency instability in the range of or below 10-19 at 104 s integration time has been obtained. For larger distances, the ultra-stable laser signal is transferred on the Internet network simultaneously with the data traffic but on a dedicated frequency channel, using wavelength division multiplexing. Multiplexed links were demonstrated over distances up to 300 km, with fractional frequency instabilities at the same level or better than with dedicated fibers.
Comparison of microwave frequency standards by satellite techniques is currently limited in instability at the 10-15level at one day [1]. However, the best optical frequency standards have already demonstrated an instability of ~ 5 × 10-17at 2000 s and an estimated uncertainty of 9 × 10-18[2]. The predicted improvement in optical frequency standards motivates the need for a new transfer method capable of performing below these predicted levels of instability. The transmission of cw optical frequencies through optical fibre networks is the most promising alternative to satellite methods when it comes to comparing remote optical frequency standards. Intra-lab comparison of optical frequency standards can already be carried out with the use of femtosecond optical frequency combs, which can easily bridge the frequency gap between the different standards under test. However, a particularly more challenging task is to compare different standards at remote European laboratories. The comparison of remote standards, particularly like-for-like systems (such as the Yb+clocks at NPL and PTB), will be important in determining the relative uncertainty and reproducibility of these clocks. For this remote comparison method to operate below the instability level of the optical standards, a highly stable phase-coherent local oscillator is needed so as not to degrade the stability of the atomic reference being compared.
The transfer of ultra-stable frequencies between distant laboratories is required by many applications from fundamental metrology to high-precision measurements. For that purpose, optical fibre links have been intensively studied over the last decade. They have demonstrated impressive results far beyond the GPS capabilities on distances up to 2000 km, thanks to an active compensation of the fiber propagation noise.Up to now, optical links has been mainly implemented between two labs, when future applications will require the development of metrological fiber networks. Towards this goal, we have developed a few techniques which allow us to distribute the ultrastable optical signal to many users simultaneously. We have designed repeater laser stations, which can be used to build a cascaded link or to distribute the ultrastable signal among two optical links [1]. These stations allow us also to compare the output end signals of two optical links. These versatile stations will be a key-component of the national metrological network currently being developed in France within the Refimeve+ project. To complete the network, we have demonstrated the extraction of the ultrastable signal from a main link and its seeding to a secondary link [2].Optical links are already been successfully used for clocks comparison. Recently we were able to compare the atomic clocks of the French and German National Metrology Institutes through two connected optical links of total length 1415-km [3]. We found that the two fully independent Sr lattice optical clocks at the two sites agreed to better than 5x10-17 limited only by the clocks uncertainties. A fractional statistical uncertainty of 3x10-17 was reached after only 1000 s averaging time, which is 10 times better, and more than four orders of magnitude faster than with any other existing frequency transfer method. The atomic fountain primary frequency standards from the two institutes were also compared and they were found to agree well within their combined uncertainties of a few 10-16 [4].
Transmitting an ultra-high precision frequency of an optical clock via wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a key technology for economically realizing innovative applications enabled by significantly accurate and stable time and frequency. In this study, we investigated an optical frequency transmission method using a commercial WDM system, employing our highly stable optical frequency repeater systems with a fiber noise compensation (FNC) function. For the 20-km WDM transmission, we achieved the frequency instability of 4 × 10–15at an averaging time of 1 second (s) and reaches ~ 1 × 10–18at 34,000 s. This frequency stability enables optical clock reference frequencies to be transmitted over long distances, demonstrating the potential of our WDM link to enable the widespread deployment of the optical clock frequency at the frontier of precision.