Optical atomic clock comparison through turbulent air

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Martha I. Bodine
  • Jean Daniel Deschênes
  • Isaac H. Khader
  • William C. Swann
  • Holly Leopardi
  • Kyle Beloy
  • Tobias Bothwell
  • Samuel M. Brewer
  • Sarah L. Bromley
  • Jwo Sy Chen
  • Scott A. Diddams
  • Robert J. Fasano
  • Tara M. Fortier
  • Youssef S. Hassan
  • David B. Hume
  • Dhruv Kedar
  • Colin J. Kennedy
  • Amanda Koepke
  • David R. Leibrandt
  • Andrew D. Ludlow
  • William F. Mcgrew
  • William R. Milner
  • Daniele Nicolodi
  • Eric Oelker
  • Thomas E. Parker
  • John M. Robinson
  • Stefania Romish
  • Jeffrey A. Sherman
  • Lindsay Sonderhouse
  • Jian Yao
  • Jun Ye
  • Xiaogang Zhang
  • Nathan R. Newbury
  • Laura C. Sinclair

We use frequency-comb-based optical two-way time-frequency transfer (O-TWTFT) to measure the optical frequency ratio of state-of-the-art ytterbium and strontium optical atomic clocks separated by a 1.5-km open-air link. Our free-space measurement is compared to a simultaneous measurement acquired via a noise-cancelled fiber link. Despite nonstationary, ps-level time-of-flight variations in the free-space link, ratio measurements obtained from the two links, averaged over 30.5 hours across six days, agree to 6×10-19, showing that O-TWTFT can support free-space atomic clock comparisons below the 10-18 level.

Original languageEnglish
Article number033395
JournalPhysical Review Research
Volume2
Issue number3
ISSN2643-1564
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sep 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.

ID: 324557353