The ACES/PHARAO space mission

Proposed in 1997, the ACES/PHARAO experiment is a space mission in fundamental physics with two atomic clocks on the International Space Station, a network of ultra-stable clocks on the ground, and space-to-ground time transfer systems. The ACES flight instruments are near completion and launch in space is planned for the first half of 2017 for a mission duration of three years. A key element of the satellite payload is a cold-atom clock designed for microgravity environment, PHARAO, operating with laser-cooled cesium atoms. Here we first report on the design and tests of the PHARAO flight model, which is now completed and ready for launch. We then briefly present the status of development of the other instruments of the ACES payload, the Space Hydrogen Maser, the microwave time-transfer system (MWL), and the laser time transfer ELT.     

Space clocks and fundamental tests: The ACES experiment

In this article we give an overview of the applications of ultrastable clocks in space. We focus on the case of the ESA space mission ACES, which is scheduled for flight onboard the international space station in 2013. With a laser cooled cesium clock, PHARAO, a space hydrogen maser, SHM, and a precise time and frequency transfer system, MWL, several precision tests in fundamental physics can be performed such as a measurement of Einstein’s gravitational frequency shift with 2 ppm sensitivity and a search for time variations of the fundamental physical constants at 10^-17/year. We present the advancement of the various mission instruments and present briefly applications in geodesy and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).     

Review: Experiments in Fundamental Physics Scheduled and in Development for the ISS

This is a review of those experiments in the area of Fundamental Physics that are either approved by ESA and NASA, or are currently under development, which are to be performed in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station. These experiments cover the physics of liquid Helium (SUE, BEST, MISTE, DYNAMX, and EXACT), ultrastable atomic clocks (PHARAO, PARCS, RACE), ultrastable microwave resonators (SUMO), and particle detectors (AMS and EUSO). The scientific goals are to study more precisely the universality properties of liquid Helium under microgravity conditions, to establish better time standards and to test the universality of the gravitational red shift, to make more precise tests of the constancy of the speed of light, and to measure the particle content in space directly without disturbances from the Earth's inner atmosphere.     

面向天基引力波探测的时间延迟干涉技术

时间延迟干涉技术(Time-delay Interferometry,TDI)对中国引力波探测项目及其它天基激光精密测量任务具有重要的参考价值。在天基引力波探测任务中,需利用激光干涉仪对无拖曳检验质量块间实现十皮米量级的位移测量精度。其中,激光源频率噪声和时钟频率噪声是两项主要噪声。在欧洲主导的LISA(Laser Interferometer Space Antenna)引力波探测项目中,利用TDI对三星上的十二组相位测量值进行延迟和线性组合,构造出臂长相等的干涉仪,从而消除了激光源噪声以及光学平台位移噪声。为了消除时钟噪声,将时钟信号倍频到GHz,再通过相位调制的方式加载到星间激光链路上,最终从时钟边带拍频信号中提取出时钟噪声,并在TDI的数据组合中将时钟噪声项消除。为了实现TDI的时间延迟处理,要求对星间绝对距离进行精确测量。因此,在TDI机制中,星间激光链路需要同时实现位移测量、时钟边带调制和绝对距离测量3个功能。其中,后两个功能分别大约消耗10%和1%的载波激光功率。LISA项目针对TDI技术的地面论证结果表明,TDI技术对激光源和时钟的噪声抑制分别达到了109和5.8×104倍。     

Analysis of the blackbody-radiation shift in an ytterbium optical lattice clock

We accurately evaluate the blackbody-radiation shift in a171 Yb optical lattice clock by utilizing temperature measurement and numerical simulation. In this work. three main radiation sources are considered for the blackbody-radiation shift, including the heated atomic oven, the warm vacuum chamber, and the room-temperature vacuum windows. The temperatures on the outer surface of the vacuum chamber are measured during the clock operation period by utilizing seven calibrated temperature sensors. Then we infer the temperature distribution inside the vacuum chamber by numerical simulation according to the measured temperatures. Furthermore, we simulate the temperature variation around the cold atoms while the environmental temperature is fluctuating. Finally, we obtain that the total blackbody-radiation shift is -1.289(7)Hz with an uncertainty of 1.25×10~(-17) for our ~(171)Yb optical lattice clock. The presented method is quite suitable for accurately evaluating the blackbody-radiation shift of the optical lattice clock in the case of lacking the sensors inside the vacuum chamber.     

Nanohertz gravitational wave searches with interferometric pulsar timing experiments

We estimate the sensitivity to nano-Hertz gravitational waves of pulsar timing experiments in which two highly stable millisecond pulsars are tracked simultaneously with two neighboring radio telescopes that are referenced to the same timekeeping subsystem (i.e., "the clock"). By taking the difference of the two time-of-arrival residual data streams we can exactly cancel the clock noise in the combined data set, thereby enhancing the sensitivity to gravitational waves. We estimate that, in the band (10(-9)-10(-8)) Hz, this "interferometric" pulsar timing technique can potentially improve the sensitivity to gravitational radiation by almost 2 orders of magnitude over that of single-telescopes. Interferometric pulsar timing experiments could be performed with neighboring pairs of antennas of the NASA's Deep Space Network and the forthcoming large arraying projects.     

CSR空间电荷效应的研究

针对兰州重离子加速器冷却储存环的流强设计 ,对其空间电荷效应进行了讨论 .随着流强增高和发射度降低 ,束流自作用场效应 (空间电荷效应 )逐渐显现 .散焦的空间电荷力造成的粒子自由振荡频移和束流包络增长 ,带来了不稳定因素 ,这些不稳定因素就限定了储存环的流强极限.Cooler Storage Ring (CSR), an upgrading program planned at the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL), will supply beams with higher quality and intensity. Space charge effects should be considered due to this magnitude of intensity in CSR. The concept and some phenomena of space charge effects are discussed. Space charge intensity limit and space charge tune shift of normal CSR operation are given. It is of significance for the construction and operation of the future facility.     

时间频率基准装置的研制现状

时间频率基准装置——铯原子喷泉钟, 在标准时间产生和保持、基础物理研究中发挥了重要的作用. 介绍了铯原子喷泉钟的工作原理, 对影响其性能的各项噪声源和频移项给出了分析, 影响频率稳定度性能的主要因素为Dick 效应相关的原子团装载时间、微波激励源相位噪声和探测激光的频率噪声, 影响频率不确定性能主要频移项为: 黑体辐射频移、冷原子碰撞频移、腔相位分布频移和微波泄露频移; 总结和比较了当前具有先进性能的铯原子喷泉钟采用的技术; 介绍了铯原子喷泉钟的主要应用方向、空间冷原子铯钟的研制情况和光学频率原子钟进展.     

Designs of all-optical NOR gates using SOA based MZI

The paper investigates the non-linear behavior of semiconductor optical amplifier with Mach–Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) configuration which makes it to work as a logic gate. The two designs of NOR gate based on SOA-MZI have been verified. The basic principal of both designs are same. The summation of data pulses have been taken and inverted to perform a NOR operation. In the design, the first 3 dB coupler creates a phase difference of π/2 in clock pulse and data pulse while passing through two interferometer arms. The clock and data pulses pass through SOA which attenuates the clock pulse wherever the data pulse is present. After passing through second 3 dB coupler a phase difference of π/2 is again created. Therefore, if the clock pulse is in the same phase will be added and if it is out of phase, will be canceled. The designs have been investigated at different bit-rates to achieve higher extinction ratio (ER), Q-factor and bit-error rate (BER) for different pump currents of SOA.     

EOM sideband phase characteristics for the spaceborne gravitational wave detector LISA

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a joint ESA/NASA mission proposed to observe gravitational waves. One important noise source in the LISA phase measurement will be on-board reference oscillators. An inter-spacecraft clock tone transfer chain will be necessary to remove this non-negligible phase noise in post processing. One of the primary components of this chain are electro-optic modulators (EOMs). At modulation frequencies of 2 GHz, we characterise the excess phase noise of a fibre-coupled integrated EOM in the LISA measurement band (0.1 mHz to 1 Hz). The upper phase noise limit was found to be almost an order of magnitude better than required by the LISA mission. In addition, the EOM’s phase dependence on temperature and optical power was determined. The measured coefficients are within a few milliradians per kelvin and per watt respectively and thereby negligible with the expected on-board temperature and laser power stability.     

数字BPM时钟锁相电路的设计与实现

为实现数字BPM时钟系统的锁相,设计了一种基于锁相环同步原理的低抖动、低相位噪声的时钟同步系统。根据锁相环电路工作原理,对数字BPM时钟同步系统的硬件及固件程序进行了设计,实现了外部输入时钟信号与系统内部产生的主工作时钟信号的锁相,并且时钟信号输出的频率及相位均可调整以满足后端ADC采样的要求。测试结果表明,设计可以完成对一定频率范围内变化的外部输入时钟信号的锁相,输出时钟信号抖动满足束流实验要求,为数字BPM后续算法研究提供了基础。     

Kinetic behavior of cold 87Rb atoms in integrating sphere

Kinetic behavior of cold ⁸⁷Rb atoms in integrating sphere is presented under adiabatic release. Decay time of cold atom cloud is deduced by calculation of residual cold atom number evolution under adiabatic release and agrees well with our experimental observation. Number evolutions of residual cold atoms under different kinds of acceleration have been studied in detail. Sequence laser pulse cooling is key technique for the successive operation of cold atom clock. The process of laser pulse cooling is numerically simulated and fitted with experiments, optimized distribution of cooling and dead time to get enough cold atoms is put forward to satisfy the demand of cold atom clock.     

Optical lattice clocks

Optical lattice clocks, which were first imagined in 2000, should allow to achieve unprecedented performances in the domain of atomic clocks. We first discuss here the principle of operation of these clocks, in particular trapping atoms in the Lamb-Dicke regime and the notion of magic wavelength. We then describe the operation of an actual lattice clock using Sr atoms and developed at LNE-SYRTE. Its present accuracy is 2.6 ⋅ 10^-15.     

The transportable cesium fountain clock NIM5: its construction and performance

The second laser cooling cesium fountain clock NIM5 at the National Institute of Metrology (NIM) China adopts the (1,1,1) direct optical molasses ( OM) configuration. NIM5 has been running with a stability of 3×10⁻¹⁵/d and an operation ratio of 99% since 2007. Preliminary evaluations of NIM5 in 2008 showed a typical combined uncertainty of 3×10⁻¹⁵. The NIM5 clock is operating in parallel with NIM’s first fountain clock NIM4. NIM4 and NIM5 are used to steer the frequency of the calculated NIM atomic time TA-c(NIM) and the first set of results are promising. We are now at the stage of comparing the frequency of NIM5 with UTC to support the independent frequency shift evaluations of NIM5 and contribute to the international atomic time in the near future.      

基于半导体光放大器的非归零信号时钟恢复

提出了一种基于半导体光放大器加窄带光纤光栅滤波器，将非归零信号转换为伪归零信号，再把伪归零信号注入到主动锁模环行腔激光器进行时钟提取的非归零信号时钟恢复方案.利用该方案实现了10 Gb/s伪随机非归零信号的全光时钟恢复，对工作原理和结果进行了分析和讨论.实验证明该方案具有结构简单，调整容易，输出波形好的特点.     

单周控制Buck变换器中的降频现象分析

研究了单周控制Buck变换器中的降频现象,并给出了降频现象发生的临界条件以及电感电流断续导电模式(DCM)与电感电流连续导电模式(CCM)的临界条件.研究结果表明,降频现象的发生是由于复位积分器的输出电压在n个时钟周期内不能达到参考电压V_ref,使得它无法在n个时钟周期内复位,只有在n+1个时钟周期内复位. 值得注意的是,在任一工作频率下,变换器无论工作在CCM还是DCM,均处于稳定状态;在主电路参数及时钟周期不变的情况下,DC 关键词： 降频现象 单周控制 Buck变换器 稳定性     

High speed fiber-based clock enhancement of NRZ data

A scheme for all-fiber clock enhancement of non-return-to-zero (NRZ) data based on cross-phase modulation (XPM) effect in nonlinear fibers is proposed and demonstrated in simulation. The simulation results indicate that the clock-to-data ratio of NRZ signals at 64 Gb/s can be increased to 22.94 dB by using this scheme, and the pattern effect in clock enhanced signals is very weak. The ability of high speed operation up to 140 Gb/s of this scheme is also proved in our simulation.     

Investigation of multiwavelength clock recovery based on heterodyne beats of sideband-filtered signal

We investigate a new parallel all-optical clock recovery scheme based on heterodyne beats of an optical sideband-filtered signal. The oscillating clock signal is recovered when the filtered sideband is combined with a stable local oscillator. The filtering is performed with an optical resonator, which by nature provides possibility for multiwavelength operation. The local oscillator could be realized by a multiwavelength laser, whose emission wavelengths are injection seeded with carrier wavelengths of the input data. The output signal of such a configuration benefits from a reduced bit-pattern effect and a stable offset level. The sideband filtering is demonstrated for 23 simultaneous channels at 100 GHz DWDM grid, each hosting a data stream of 10 Gbit/s.     

Upper limits on the cosmological gravitational wave background and maser clocks in space

We consider the possibility of detecting gravitational waves through the measurement of a time varying phase shift using a hydrogen maser clock on a satellite. Such measurements enable us to put interesting upper limits on the contribution of the gravitational-wave background to the dimensionless density of the Universe. The requirements on residual accelerations and the sensitivity of an accelerometer on the spacecraft are shown to be realistic and could be achieved using the accelerometer technology developed by ONERA for the ARISTOTELES mission. Such an experiment placing upper limits on the cosmological gravitational wave background could be conducted using the proposed Russian satellite Millimetron.On leave from the Astro Space Center, Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia     

All-Optical Clock Recovery from NRZ-DPSK Signals at Flexible Bit Rates

We propose and demonstrate all-optical clock recovery （OR） from nonreturn-to-zero differential phase-shift- keying （NRZ-DPSK） signals at different bit rates theoretically and experimentally. By pre-processing with a single optical filter, clock component can be enhanced significantly and thus clock signal can be extracted from the preprocessed signals, by cascading a OR unit with a semiconductor optical amplifier based fibre ring laser. Compared with the previous preprocessing schemes, the single filter is simple and suitable for different bit rates. The clock signals can be achieved with extinction ratio over lOdB and rms timing jitter of 0.86 and 0.9 at 10 and 20 Gb/s, respectively. The output performances related to the bandwidth and the detuning of the filter are analysed. By simply using a filter with larger bandwidth, much higher operation can be achieved easily.