All-passive multiple-place optical phase noise cancellation

TL;DR

This paper presents a passive phase noise cancellation method for delivering coherent optical frequencies to multiple locations over fiber networks, reducing hardware complexity and improving response speed compared to active systems.

Contribution

It introduces a passive, multi-place optical phase noise cancellation technique that eliminates the need for active servo controllers in fiber networks.

Findings

Residual fiber phase noise PSD is 7 times higher than conventional methods near the fiber end.

The technique suppresses servo bump noise and enhances phase recovery speed.

It minimizes hardware overhead for large-scale optical frequency distribution systems.

Abstract

We report on the realization of delivering coherent optical frequency to multiple places based on passive phase noise cancellation over a bus topology fiber network. This technique mitigates any active servo controller on the main fiber link and at arbitrary access places as opposed to the conventional technique, in which an active phase compensation circuit has to be adopted to stabilize the main fiber link. Although the residual fiber phase noise power spectral density (PSD) in the proposed technique turns out to be a factor of 7 higher than that of in the conventional multiple-access technique when the access place is close to the end of the fiber link, it could largely suppress the phase noise introduced by the servo bumps, improve the response speed and phase recovery time, and minimize hardware overhead in systems with many stations and connections without the need of the active servo circuits including phase discriminators and active compensators. The proposed technique could considerably simplify future efforts to make precise optical frequency signals available to many users, as required by some large-scale science experiments.