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Transportable cavity-stabilized laser system for optical carrier frequency transmission experiments.
Applied Optics
|January 22, 2015
Summary
A new transportable laser system enables precise optical carrier frequency transmission over 118 km of dark fiber. This breakthrough achieves high accuracy and stability, suitable for comparing advanced optical frequency standards.
Area of Science:
- Physics
- Optical Engineering
- Metrology
Background:
- Accurate optical frequency transfer is crucial for advancing scientific research and metrology.
- Existing systems often lack portability and robustness for real-world fiber network applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and demonstrate a transportable laser system for high-fidelity optical carrier frequency transmission.
- To evaluate the system's performance over a long-haul installed dark fiber network.
Main Methods:
- Designed a transportable laser system around an elastically mounted optical reference cavity.
- Utilized passive vibration insensitivity and active fiber noise cancellation techniques.
- Demonstrated optical carrier frequency transmission over 118 km of urban dark fiber.
Main Results:
- Achieved passive fractional frequency insensitivity to vibration of 2.0×10⁻¹¹ m⁻¹s².
- Measured fractional frequency instability of 2.6×10⁻¹⁶ at 1s, improving to below 3×10⁻¹⁸ after 20,000s.
- Attained fractional frequency accuracy better than 3×10⁻¹⁸.
Conclusions:
- The transportable laser system provides unprecedented performance for optical frequency transfer in deployed fiber networks.
- The achieved accuracy and stability are sufficient for comparing state-of-the-art optical frequency standards.
- This technology opens new possibilities for distributed metrology and fundamental physics experiments.
