Free-space transfer of comb-rooted optical frequencies over an 18 km open-air link

Abstract

Phase-coherent transfer of optical frequencies over a long distance is required for diverse photonic applications, including optical clock dissemination and physical constants measurement. Several demonstrations were made successfully over fiber networks, but not much work has been done yet through the open air where atmospheric turbulence prevails. Here, we use an 18 km outdoor link to transmit multiple optical carriers extracted directly from a frequency comb of a 4.2 THz spectral width. In stabilization to a high-finesse cavity with a 1.5 Hz linewidth, the comb-rooted optical carriers are simultaneously transferred with collective suppression of atmospheric phase noise to -80 dBc Hz(-1). Microwaves are also delivered by pairing two separate optical carriers bound with inter-comb-mode coherence, for example a 10 GHz signal with phase noise of -105 dBc Hz(-1) at 1 Hz offset. Lastly, an add-on demonstration is given for multi-channel coherent optical communications with the potential of multi-Tbps data transmission in free space.