We present an optical-electronic approach to generating microwave signals with high spectral purity. By circumventing shot noise and operating near fundamental thermal limits, we demonstrate 10 GHz signals with an absolute timing jitter for a single hybrid oscillator of 420 attoseconds (1Hz - 5 GHz).
High-precision optical pulse trains distribution via fibre links has made huge impacts in many fields. In most published works, the accuracies are still fundamentally limited by some unavoidable noises, such as thermal and shot noise from conventional photodiodes, thermal noise from mixers. Here, we demonstrate a new high-precision timing distribution system by using highly-precision phase detector to overcome the limitations. Instead of using photodiodes and microwave mixers, we use several fibre Sagnac-loop-based optical-microwave phase detectors to realize optical-electrical conversion and phase measurements, for suppressing the noises and achieving ultra-high accuracy. A 10-km fibre link distribution experiment shows our system provides a residual instability at the level of 4.6*10-15@1-s and 6.1*10-18@10000-s, with an integrated timing jitter as low as 3.8 fs in a bandwidth of 1 Hz to 100 KHz. This low instability and timing jitter makes it possible that our system can be used in the optical clock distribution or the applications for the facilities which require extremely accuracy frequency time synchronization.
We utilize and characterize high-power, high-linearity modified uni-traveling carrier (MUTC) photodiodes for low-phase-noise photonic microwave generation based on optical frequency division. When illuminated with picosecond pulses from a repetition-rate-multiplied gigahertz Ti:sapphire modelocked laser, the photodiodes can achieve 10 GHz signal power of +14 dBm. Using these diodes, a 10 GHz microwave tone is generated with less than 500 attoseconds absolute integrated timing jitter (1 Hz-10 MHz) and a phase noise floor of -177 dBc/Hz. We also characterize the electrical response, amplitude-to-phase conversion, saturation and residual noise of the MUTC photodiodes.
The Duffing oscillator is a nonlinear extension of the ubiquitous harmonic oscillator and as such plays an outstanding role in science and technology. Experimentally, the system parameters are determined by a measurement of its response to an external excitation. When changing the amplitude or frequency of the external excitation, a sudden jump in the response function reveals the nonlinear dynamics prominently. However, this bistability leaves part of the full response function unobserved, which limits the precise measurement of the system parameters. Here, we exploit the often unknown fact that the response of a Duffing oscillator with nonlinear damping is a unique function of its phase. By actively stabilizing the oscillators phase we map out the full response function. This phase control allows us to precisely determine the system parameters. Our results are particularly important for characterizing nanoscale resonators, where nonlinear effects are observed readily and which hold great promise for next generation of ultrasensitive force and mass measurements. We demonstrate our approach experimentally with an optically levitated particle in high vacuum.
We report on the design, fabrication and measurement of travelling-wave superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) integrated with polycrystalline diamond photonic circuits. We analyze their performance both in the near-infrared wavelength regime around 1600 nm and at 765 nm. Near-IR detection is important for compatibility with the telecommunication infrastructure, while operation in the visible wavelength range is relevant for compatibility with the emission line of silicon vacancy centers in diamond which can be used as efficient single-photon sources. Our detectors feature high critical currents (up to 31 {mu}A) and high performance in terms of efficiency (up to 74% at 765 nm), noise-equivalent power (down to 4.4*10^-19 W/(Hz^1/2) at 765 nm) and timing jitter (down to 23 ps).
We present a transportable optical clock (TOC) with $^{87}$Sr. Its complete characterization against a stationary lattice clock resulted in a systematic uncertainty of ${7.4 times 10^{-17}}$ which is currently limited by the statistics of the determination of the residual lattice light shift. The measurements confirm that the systematic uncertainty is reduceable to below the design goal of $1 times 10^{-17}$. The instability of our TOC is $1.3 times 10^{-15}/sqrt{(tau/s)}$. Both, the systematic uncertainty and the instability are to our best knowledge currently the best achieved with any type of transportable clock. For autonomous operation the TOC is installed in an air-conditioned car-trailer. It is suitable for chronometric leveling with sub-meter resolution as well as intercontinental cross-linking of optical clocks, which is essential for a redefiniton of the SI second. In addition, the TOC will be used for high precision experiments for fundamental science that are commonly tied to precise frequency measurements and it is a first step to space borne optical clocks