Optical Techniques for Time and Frequency Transfer

Francoise Baumont, Jean Gaignebet

Abstract:	Light has been used as a mean for time synchronization for a long time. The flight time was supposed to be negligible. The first scientific determination of the velocity of the light was done by measuring a round trip flight time on a given distance (France 1849). The well known flying clock experiment leading to Einstein General Relativity is another example (1905). The advent of lasers, particularly short pulse and modulated ones, as well as the improvements of the timing equipments have led to new concepts for time and frequency transfer. We describe in this paper some experiments using different techniques and configurations which have been proposed and tested in this field since the beginning of the space age. Added to that, we set out advantages, drawbacks and performances achieved in the different cases.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 25th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting November 29 - 2, 1993 Ritz-Carlton Hotel Marina Del Rey, California
Pages:	119 - 132
Cite this article:	Baumont, Francoise, Gaignebet, Jean, "Optical Techniques for Time and Frequency Transfer," Proceedings of the 25th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Marina Del Rey, California, November 1993, pp. 119-132.
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