Dissemination of Optical Frequency for Future Telecom Networks and Applications

Optical atomic lattice clocks are a precise source for time with frequency accuracy to a few parts in 10
^-18
. The optical frequency from these clocks needs to be disseminated over a fiber to make them fit for different applications. The paper investigates a methodology for disseminating optical frequency over a fiber by sending the operative frequency as the beat frequency of a heterodyne signal. The work details results obtained using this technique for frequency transfer over several kilometers of fiber in the lab and real environment.