Free space optical link to a tethered balloon for frequency transfer

Abstract

We present the results of an optical link to a corner cube on board a tethered balloon at 300 m altitude including a Tip/Tilt compensation for the balloon tracking. Our experiment measures the carrier phase of a 1542 nm laser, which is the useful signal for frequency comparison of distant clocks. An active phase noise compensation of the carrier is implemented, demonstrating a fractional frequency stability of 8x10-19 after 16 s averaging, which slightly (factor ~3) improves on best previous links via an airborne platform. This state-of-the-art result is obtained with a transportable set-up that enables a fast field deployment.