Femtosecond Synchronization of Optical Clocks Off of a Flying Quadcopter

Abstract: Future optical clock networks will require free-space optical time-frequency transfer between flying clocks. However, simple one-way or standard two-way time transfer between flying clocks will completely break down because of the time-of-flight variations and Doppler shifts associated with the strongly time-varying optical link distances. Here, we demonstrate an advanced, comb-based optical two-way time-frequency transfer that can successfully synchronize the optical timescales at two sites connected via a time-varying turbulent air path. The link between the two sites is established using either a quadcopter-mounted retroreflector or a swept delay line at speeds up to 24 m/s. Despite 50-ps breakdown in time-of-flight reciprocity, the sites' timescales are synchronized to < 1 fs in time deviation. The corresponding sites' frequencies agree to $\sim$ $10^{-18}$ despite $10^{-7}$ Doppler shifts. This work demonstrates comb-based O-TWTFT can enable free-space optical networks between airborne or satellite-borne optical clocks for precision navigation, timing and probes of fundamental science.