GVD-insensitive stable radio frequency phase dissemination for arbitrary-access loop link

Opt Express. 2016 Oct 3;24(20):23376-23382. doi: 10.1364/OE.24.023376.

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a stable radio frequency (RF) phase dissemination scheme for a long-haul optical fiber loop link based on frequency mixing. Using a single optical source in both directions of the loop link, additional timing jitter caused by group velocity dispersion (GVD) can be eliminated. Impressive scalability provided by the optical link ensures that arbitrary-access node can obtain an RF signal with a stabilized phase to meet the requirements of multiple users. In our experiment, a 2.4 GHz RF signal is distributed to arbitrary points along a 100 km fiber-optic loop link steadily. Stabilities of the recovered signals from two accessing nodes are recorded. The root-mean-square (RMS) phase jitter of the received signal at either accessing node is reduced from 1.87 rad to no more than 0.027 rad during 1800-second measuring time.