Fiber-based radio frequency dissemination for branching networks with passive phase-noise cancelation

We demonstrate a new fiber-based radio frequency(RF) dissemination scheme suitable for a star-shaped branching network. Without any phase controls on the RF signals or the use of active feedback-locking components, the highly stable reference frequency signal can be delivered to several remote sites simultaneously and independently. The relative frequency stabilities of 6 × 10-15∕s and 7 × 10-17∕104s are obtained for a10 km dissemination. This low cost and scalable method can be applied to a large-scale frequency synchronization network.     

Robust fiber-based frequency synchronization system immune to strong temperature fluctuation

In order to make the fiber-based frequency synchronization system suitable for the use of large-scale scientific and engineering projects in which the ambient temperature of the fiber links change dramatically, we design a non-harmonic frequency dissemination system immune to strong temperature fluctuation. After the lab tests, in which the ambient temperature of the fiber fluctuates 40°C/day and 20°C/h, respectively, the relative frequency stabilities of this system reaches 4.0 × 10~(-14)∕s and 3.0 × 10~(-16)∕10~4 s. It is demonstrated that the proposed non-harmonic scheme shows a strong robustness to complicated working environment with strong temperature fluctuation.     

Joint transfer of time and frequency signals and multi-point synchronization via fiber network

A system of jointly transferring time signals with a rate of 1 pulse per second(PPS) and frequency signals of 10 MHz via a dense wavelength division multiplex-based(DWDM) fiber is demonstrated in this paper.The noises of the fiber links are suppressed and compensated for by a controlled fiber delay line.A method of calibrating and characterizing time is described.The 1PPS is synchronized by feed-forward calibrating the fiber delays precisely.The system is experimentally examined via a 110 km spooled fiber in laboratory.The frequency stabilities of the user end with compensation are1.8×10~(-14) at 1 s and 2.0×10~(-17) at 10~4 s average time.The calculated uncertainty of time synchronization is 13.1 ps,whereas the direct measurement of the uncertainty is 12 ps.Next,the frequency and 1PPS are transferred via a metropolitan area optical fiber network from one central site to two remote sites with distances of 14 km and 110 km.The frequency stabilities of 14 km link reach 3.0×10~(-14) averaged in 1 s and 1.4×10~(-17) in 10~4 s respectively;and the stabilities of 110 km link are 8.3×10~(-14) and 1.7×10~(-17),respectively.The accuracies of synchronization are estimated to be 12.3 ps for the14 km link and 13.1 ps for the 110 km link,respectively.     

Distribution of millimeter waves over a fiber link with high frequency stability(Invited Paper)

We present a theoretical analysis, systematic simulation, and experimental measurements for the phase noise,timing jitter, and frequency stability in the frequency distribution of millimeter waves over distant optical fiber links. The conception that the dissemination of a higher frequency reference instead of a lower one can achieve a better frequency stability is discussed and verified. We find that the system's noise floor, including thermal noise,shot noise, and any other noise from electronic components, is considered to be a fundamental limitation for a frequency reference transmission system. Benefiting from the high-precision time delay variation discrimination and accurate locking control operation, a highly stabilized reference is distributed to a remote end over a 60 km spooled fiber, achieving a frequency stability of 4 × 10~(-17) at an average time 1000 s, corresponding to 23 fs of RMS timing jitter(0.01 Hz~(–1) MHz).     

An Accurate Frequency Control Method and Atomic Clock Based on Coherent Population Beating Phenomenon

An accurate frequency control method and atomic clock based on the coherent population beating(CPB) phenomenon is implemented.In this scheme,the frequency difference of an rf and an atomic transition frequency can be digitally obtained by measuring the CPB oscillation frequency.The frequency measurement resolution of several milli-hertz can be achieved by using a 10 MHz oven controlled crystal oscillator as the reference.The expression of the Allan deviation of the CPB clock is theoretically deduced and it is revealed that the Allan deviation is inversely proportional to the signal-to-noise ratio and proportional to the line-width of coherent population trapping spectrum.We also approve that the CPB atomic clock has a large toleration of the drift of the local oscillator.In our CPB experimental system,a frequency instability of 3.0×10~(-12) at 1000 s is observed.The important feature of high frequency measurement resolution of the CPB method may also be used in magnetometers,atomic spectroscopy,and other related research.     

Ramsey-coherent population trapping Cs atomic clock based on lin‖lin optical pumping with dispersion detection

A Cs vapor cell-based atomic clock that uses a lin‖lin pumping scheme with dispersion detection is reported. This atomic clock shows potential for high performance because of its high contrast pumping scheme, and for miniaturization because of its simple architecture. The experimental setup and optimal operating parameters for the clock are introduced.The current fractional frequency stability is measured to be 1.3 × 10~(-12)/■ up to 20s and reaches 3.1 × 10~(-13) at 200 s. We have thoroughly investigated the related noise sources that affect clock frequency stability at the 1s and 100s levels. The investigation shows that the laser frequency noise limits the clock frequency stability significantly. The clock performance can be further improved by technically upgrading the laser frequency stabilization setup.     

A 532 nm molecular iodine optical frequency standard based on modulation transfer spectroscopy

We report construction of an iodine-stabilized laser frequency standard at 532 nm based on modulation transfer spectroscopy(MTS) technology with good reproducibility. A frequency stability of 2.5 × 10~(-14) at 1 s averaging time is achieved,and the frequency reproducibility has a relative uncertainty of 3.5×10~(-13), demonstrating the great stability of our setup.The systematic uncertainty of the iodine-stabilized laser frequency standard is evaluated, especially the contribution of the residual amplitude modulation(RAM). The contribution of the RAM in MTS cannot be evaluated directly. To solve this problem, we theoretically deduce the MTS signal with RAM under large modulation depth, and prove that the nonsymmetric shape of the MTS signal is directly related to the MTS effect. The non-symmetric shape factor r can be calibrated with a frequency comb, and in real experiments, this r value can be obtained by least-squares fitting of the MTS signal,from which we can infer the RAMinduced frequency shift. The full frequency uncertainty is evaluated to be 5.3 k Hz(corresponding to a relative frequency uncertainty of 9.4×10~(-12)). The corrected transition frequency has a difference from the BIPM-recommended value of 2 k Hz, which is within 1σ uncertainty, proving the validity of our evaluation.     

Fiber-based joint time and frequency dissemination via star-shaped commercial telecommunication network

A fiber-based, star-shaped joint time and frequency dissemination scheme is demonstrated. By working in cooperation with the existing commercial telecommunication network. Our scheme enables the frequency, time, and digital data networks to be integrated together and could represent an ideal option of interconnection among scientific institutions.The compensation functions of the time and frequency transfer scheme are set at the client nodes. The complexity of the central node is thus reduced, and future expansion by the addition of further branches will be accomplished more easily.During a performance test in which the ambient temperature fluctuation is 30℃/day, timing signal dissemination stability is achieved to be approximately ±50 ps along 25-km-long fiber spools. After calibration, a timing signal synchronization accuracy of 100 ps is also realized. The proposed scheme offers an option of the construction of large-scale fiber-based frequency and time transfer networks.     

Stabilized DFB laser system with large tuning range

We propose, design, and realize a compact stabilized laser system that can be tuned within 24 GHz automatically.This laser system consists of two distributed feedback(DFB) lasers, one of which is reference and locked to the D2 line of ~(87)Rb, the other laser is a slave that is locked to the reference laser via a loop servo. We measured the frequency of the beating signal of the two lasers and generated an error signal, which controlled the frequency of the slave laser to close the loop. We compressed the fluctuation of the beating signal's frequency to less than 1 MHz.Furthermore, the system can also automatically determine and control whether the slave is red detuned or blue detuned to the reference. The dimensions of our laser system are about 15 cm × 20 cm × 10 cm. This kind of laser system can be applied in many important applications, such as atomic interferometer and cold atomic clock.     

An Yb-fiber frequency comb phase-locked to microwave standard and optical reference

We present a fully stabilized Yb-fiber frequency comb locked to a microwave standard and an optical reference separately. The carrier-envelope offset frequency is generated by a standard f–2f interferometer with 40 dB signal-tonoise ratio. The offset frequency and the repetition rate are stabilized simultaneously to the radio frequency reference for more than 30 hours, and the fractional Allan deviation of the comb is the same as the microwave standard of 10^-12 at 1 s.Alternatively, the comb is locked to an ultra-stable optical reference at 972 nm using an intracavity electro-optic modulator,exhibiting a residual integrated phase noise of 458 mrad(1 Hz–10 MHz) and an in-loop tracking stability of 1.77× 10^-18 at 1 s, which is significantly raised by six orders comparing to the case locked to the microwave frequency standard.     

基于光纤的光学频率传递研究

随着光钟研究的发展, 光钟的稳定度和不确定度均达到10^-18量级. 通过光纤可以实现光钟频率信号的高精度传输, 有望用于未来“秒”定义的复现. 演示了百公里级实验室光纤上的光学频率传递. 对于在实验室70 km光纤盘上实现的光频传递, 光纤相位噪声抑制在1-250 Hz傅里叶频率范围内均接近于光纤延时极限, 对应传输稳定度(Allan偏差)为秒级稳定度1.2×10^-15, 10000 s稳定度为1.4×10^-18. 实验室100 km光纤的光频传递秒级稳定度也达到了5×10^-15. 提出了光纤噪声用户端补偿的方案, 可以简化星形传递网络中心站的复杂度. 在25 km光纤上演示了该传递方案, 实现的传输稳定度接近传统前置补偿传递方案.     

基于微波相位补偿的56 km高精度光纤微波频率传递

报道了实验室内56 km光纤微波频率传递的实验研究,在56 km的传递距离上实现了1.8×10^-15/s,4×10^-18/10⁴s的传递稳定度。系统通过环回法比较往返传递的微波信号相位获得链路上的相位扰动量,并实时控制本地发射端的微波发射信号相位实现预补偿。在环回往返传递的不同方向上,系统方案采用不同频率的微波调制信号,这种方法极大避免了光寄生反射效应的影响,同时利用色散补偿光纤改善探测信号相噪等措施,提高了系统的传递稳定度。     

利用传输腔技术实现镱原子光钟光晶格场的频率稳定

为了获得高稳定度和高精确度的原子光晶格钟,光晶格场的频率必须得到锁定,线宽必须控制到特定水平用来消除交流斯塔克频移.本文提出利用传输腔技术来实现对镱原子光钟的光晶格场的频率锁定和抑制频率长期漂移的锁定方案.首先,将一个殷钢材料的传输腔锁定在基于调制转移谱技术锁定的780 nm激光场上,再将759 nm的光晶格光场锁定在传输腔上.实验结果表明,光晶格光场的线宽可以锁定和控制在1 MHz以下.光晶格光场与锁定于氢钟的光梳拍频结果显示,光晶格光场的长期频率稳定度优于3.6×10~(-10),可以确保实现镱原子光钟的不确定度进入10~(-17).     

Modeling of cascaded high isolation bidirectional amplification in long-distance fiber-optic time and frequency synchronization system

We propose a physical model of estimating noise and asymmetry brought by high isolation Bi-directional erbiumdoped fiber amplifiers(Bi-EDFAs), no spontaneous lasing even with high gain, in longdistance fiber-optic time and frequency(T/F) synchronization system. It is found that the Rayleigh scattering noise can be suppressed due to the high isolation design, but the amplified spontaneous emission(ASE) noise generated by the high isolation Bi-EDFA and the bidirectional asymmetry of the transmission link caused by the high isolation Bi-EDFA will deteriorate the stability of the system.The calculated results show that under the influence of ASE noise, the frequency instability of a 1200 km system composed of 15 high isolation Bi-EDFAs is 1.773 × 10-13/1 s. And the instability caused by asymmetry is 2.6064 × 10-16/30000–35000 s if the total asymmetric length of the bidirectional link length is 30 m. The intensity noises originating from the laser and detector, the transfer delay fluctuations caused by the variation in ambient temperature and the jitter in laser output wavelength are also studied. The experiment composed of three high isolation Bi-EDFAs is done to confirm the theoretical analysis. In summary, the paper shows that the short-term instability of the T/F synchronization system composed of high isolation Bi-EDFAs is limited by the accumulation of ASE noise of amplifiers and the laser frequency drift, while the long-term instability is limited by the periodic variation in ambient temperature and the asymmetry of the amplifiers.The research results are useful for pointing out the direction to improve the stability of the fiber-optic T/F synchronization system.     

Turbulence mitigation scheme based on multiple-user detection in an orbital-angular-momentum multiplexed system

Atmospheric turbulence(AT) induced crosstalk can significantly impair the performance of a free-space optical(FSO)communication link using orbital angular momentum(OAM) multiplexing.In this paper,we propose a multiple-user detection(MUD) turbulence mitigation scheme in an OAM-multiplexed FSO communication link.First,we present a MUD equivalent communication model for an OAM-multiplexed FSO communication link under AT.In the equivalent model,each input bit stream represents one user's information.The deformed OAM spatial modes caused by AT,instead of the pure OAM spatial modes,are used as information carriers,and the overlapping between the deformed OAM spatial modes are computed as the correlation coefficients between the users.Then,we present a turbulence mitigation scheme based on MUD idea to enhance AT tolerance of the OAM-multiplexed FSO communication link.In the proposed scheme,the crosstalk caused by AT is used as a useful component to deduce users' information.The numerical results show that the performance of the OAM-multiplexed communication link has greatly improved by the proposed scheme.When the turbulence strength C_n~2 is 1 × 10~(-15) m~(-2/3),the transmission distance is 1000 m and the channel signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)is 26 dB,the bit-error-rate(BER) performance of four spatial multiplexed OAM modes l_m = + 1,+2,+3,+4 are all close to 10~(-5),and there is a 2-3 fold increase in the BER performance in comparison with those results without the proposed scheme.In addition,the proposed scheme is more effective for an OAM-multiplexed FSO communication link with a larger OAM mode topological charge interval.The proposed scheme is a promising direction for compensating the interference caused by AT in the OAM-multiplexed FSO communication link.     

200 km沙漠链路高精度光纤时频传递关键技术研究

针对沙漠环境实地链路存在的温度变化大、室外风力、地表振动等多种复杂噪声来源,通过对系统反馈补偿带宽、反馈补偿强度、光功率等时频传递系统关键参数的优化配置,研究了不同反馈补偿参数下复杂链路噪声的有效抑制技术.全链路的频率传递稳定度8×10~(-14)@1s,1×10~(-16)@1000 s,千秒尺度下时间信号传递的时间方差仅为1.2 ps.实现了氢钟信号在200 km量级沙漠环境实地链路的无损传输.该验证实验在基于短基线干涉测量的卫星测轨系统中发挥了重要作用.     

All polarization-maintaining Er:fiber-based optical frequency comb for frequency comparison of optical clocks

We demonstrate an optical frequency comb (OFC) based on a turnkey mode-locked laser with a figure-9-shape structure and polarization-maintaining fibers, for the comparison of frequency among optical clocks with wavelengths of 698 nm, 729 nm, 1068 nm, and 1156 nm. We adopt a multi-branch approach in order to produce high power OFC signals at these specific wavelengths, enabling the signal-to-noise ratio of the beatnotes between the OFC and the clock lasers to exceed 30 dB at a resolution bandwidth of 300 kHz. This approach makes the supercontinuum spectra much easier to be generated than a single branch OFC. However, more out-of-loop fibers degrade the long-term frequency instability due to thermal drift. To minimize the thermal drift effect, we set the fiber lengths of different branches to be similar, and we stabilize the temperature as well. The out-of-loop frequency instability of the OFC due to the incoherence of the multi-branch is about 5.5×10^-19 for 4000 s, while the in-loop frequency instability of f_ceo and that of f_beat are 7.5×10^-18 for 1 s and 8.5×10^-18 for 1 s, respectively. The turnkey OFC meets the requirement for the comparison of frequency between the best optical clocks.     

Low specific contact resistivity to graphene achieved by AuGe/Ni/Au and annealing process

Low metal-graphene contact resistance is important in making high-performance graphene devices.In this work,we demonstrate a lower specific contact resistivity of Au_(0.88)Ge_(0.12)/Ni/Au-graphene contact compared with Ti/Au and Ti/Pt/Au contacts.The rapid thermal annealing process was optimized to improve AuGe/Ni/Au contact resistance.Results reveal that both pre- and post-annealing processes are effective for reducing the contact resistance.The specific contact resistivity decreases from 2.5 × 10~(-4) to 7.8 × 10~(-5) Ω·cm~2 by pre-annealing at 300 ℃ for one hour,and continues to decrease to9.5 × 10~(-7) H·cm~2 after post-annealing at 490 ℃ for 60 seconds.These approaches provide reliable means of lowering contact resistance.     

中层大气静力稳定性减弱趋势——历史火箭探空数据分析

大气静力稳定性参数Brunt-Vaisala频率反映了以温度垂直梯度为代表的大气整体结构的特征. 全球增暖背景下, 学术界对中层大气静力稳定性的响应形式还相当缺乏了解. 利用历史火箭探空资料, 考察了1962–1991年期间从赤道到北半球中纬度地区中层大气静力稳定性(Brunt-Vaisala频率的平方, N²)的长期趋势. 结果表明, 对于选取的6个典型站点, 在平流 层上部到中间层中部区域(48–60 km), 所有站点大气静力稳定性一致呈现显著减弱的长期趋势. 48–60 km整层平均N²长期趋势统计结果表明, 在两个热带站点, N²长期趋势一致, 每十年减小0.11×10^-4 s^-2; 随着纬度增加, 在从22°N (Barking Sand 站)向38°N (Wallops Island 站)过渡的区间内, N²趋势从-0.16×10^-4 s^-2/decade增强到-0.22×10^-4 s^-2/decade.