Photonic microwave distribution with femtosecond lasers

Microwave distribution systems are critical for achieving the required resolution and performance in large-scale scientific facilities such as astronomical telescopes and X-ray free-electron lasers. In this paper, we present a photonic microwave distribution system based on femtosecond lasers and pulsed optical fiber transmission stabilization. Our experimental results show an additive timing jitter of only 10.62 fs RMS at a 5.712 GHz carrier integrated from 1 Hz to 1 MHz. The extracted 5.712 GHz microwave exhibits an ultra-low timing drift of only 13.3 fs RMS over 10 hours.