RESUMO
Laser time transfer is of great significance in timing and global time synchronization. However, 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 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 to help establish an ultra-stable laser time transfer link in a space application.
RESUMO
The Time Transfer by Laser Link (T2L2) project allows for the synchronization of remote ultrastable clocks over intercontinental distances. The principle is derived from the satellite laser ranging technology with a dedicated space equipment designed to record arrival times of laser pulses at the satellite. The space segment was launched in 2008 as a passenger instrument on the ocean altimetry satellite Jason 2. For the first time, we have conducted by the end of 2016 a dedicated time transfer comparison campaign between Global Positioning System and T2L2 over intercontinental distances. The campaign was carried out between two laboratories in Europe and two in China. The campaign has demonstrated a consistency of the time transfer techniques at the 1-ns level, together with the confirmation of a subnanosecond level for continental distances.
