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arXiv:quant-ph/0105156 · Physical Review Letters

Clock Synchronization with Dispersion Cancellation

Vittorio Giovannetti, Seth Lloyd, Lorenzo Maccone, Franco N. C. Wong

Published Aug 27, 2001• 112 citations
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Abstract

The dispersion cancellation feature of pulses which are entangled in frequency is employed to synchronize clocks of distant parties. The proposed protocol is insensitive to the pulse distortion caused by transit through a dispersive medium. Since there is cancellation to all orders, also the effects of slowly fluctuating dispersive media are compensated. The experimental setup can be realized with currently available technology, at least for a proof of principle.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.87.117902

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The dispersion cancellation feature of pulses which are entangled in frequency is employed to synchronize clocks of distant parties. The proposed protocol is insensitive to the pulse distortion caused by transit through a dispersive medium. Since there is cancellation to all orders, also the effects of slowly fluctuating dispersive media are compensated. The experimental setup can be realized with currently available technology, at least for a proof of principle.
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Clock synchronization between the ground and satellites is a fundamental issue in future quantum telecommunication, navigation, and global positioning systems. Here, we propose a scheme of near-Earth orbit satellite-based quantum clock synchronization with atmospheric dispersion cancellation by taking into account the spacetime background of the Earth. Two frequency entangled pulses are employed to synchronize two clocks, one at a ground station and the other at a satellite. The time discrepancy of the two clocks is introduced into the pulses by moving mirrors and is extracted by measuring the coincidence rate of the pulses in the interferometer. We find that the pulses are distorted due to effects of gravity when they propagate between the Earth and the satellite, resulting in remarkably affected coincidence rates. We also find that the precision of the clock synchronization is sensitive to the source parameters and the altitude of the satellite. The scheme provides a solution for satellite-based quantum clock synchronization with high precision, which can be realized, in principle, with current technology.
Summary form only given. Two classical pulses of light propagating through two distant, dispersive media will experience dispersion that depends only on the local properties of the two media. It was previously shown, however, that two entangled photons propagating through two dispersive media, can experience a cancellation of dispersion in the sense that the two photons will arrive at two equally-distant detectors at the same time despite the dispersion. Other forms of dispersion cancellation have also been described. We generalize dispersion cancellation to entangled states containing a large number N of photons in each pulse.