High-Precision Single-Photon Laser Time Transfer with Temperature Drift Post-Compensation
Wendong Meng,
Yurong Wang,
Kai Tang,
Zhijie Zhang,
Shuanggen Jin,
Ivan Procházka,
Zhongping Zhang,
Guang Wu
Affiliations
Wendong Meng
State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Yurong Wang
State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Kai Tang
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, China
Zhijie Zhang
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, China
Shuanggen Jin
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, China
Ivan Procházka
Department of Physical Electronics, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, 115 19 Prague, Czech Republic
Zhongping Zhang
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, China
Guang Wu
State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Laser time transfer is of great significance in timing and global time synchronization. However, the temperature drift may occur and affect the delay of the electronics system, optic generation and detection system. This paper proposes a post-processing method for the compensation of temperature-induced system delay, which does not require any changes to the hardware setup. The temperature drift and time stability of the whole system are compared with and without compensation. The results show that the propagation delay drift as high as 240 ps caused by temperature changes is compensated. The temperature drift coefficient was diminished down to ~0.05 ps/°C from ~20.0 ps/°C. The system precision was promoted to ~2 ps from ~11 ps over a time period of 80,000 s. This method performs significant compensation of single-photon laser time transfer system propagation drift and will help to establish an ultra-stable laser time transfer link in space applications.
