Network synchronisation better than 1ns using a frequency comb

Optical frequency combs are a valuable technology for network synchronisation and many other applications. They are commercially available from only a few vendors, none of whom are in the UK. In this project, In this project, Fianium Ltd (or NKT Photonics UK) and the University of Birmingham aim to make a feasibility study on developing a new method for generating optical frequency combs using a mode-locked femtosecond laser and novel photonic crystal fibre. These will be combined to generate a theoretically fully coherent method for supercontinuum broadening, thereby transferring the excellent noise performance of the mode-locked laser into an octave-spanning optical frequency comb. Research will be needed to understand the remaining noise and how it can be reduced, and here we will investigate both frequency jitter reduction and absolute frequency stabilisation to further minimise the noise and prepare it for use in a telecommunications system, holding timing, and thereby keeping track of the great swaths of data transmitted in and out of the UK daily.