Two-Way Quantum Time Transfer: A Method for Daytime Space-Earth Links

High-precision remote clock synchronization is crucial for many classical and quantum network applications. Evaluating options for space-Earth links, we find that traditional solutions may not produce the desired synchronization for low Earth orbits and unnecessarily complicate quantum-networking ar...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors Lafler, Randy, Eickhoff, Mark L, Newey, Scott C, Gonzalez, Yamil Nieves, Stoltenburg, Kurt E, Camacho, J. Frank, Harris, Mark A, Oesch, Denis W, Lewis, Adrian J, Lanning, R. Nicholas
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 14.07.2023
Subjects
Physics - Quantum Physics
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Summary:High-precision remote clock synchronization is crucial for many classical and quantum network applications. Evaluating options for space-Earth links, we find that traditional solutions may not produce the desired synchronization for low Earth orbits and unnecessarily complicate quantum-networking architectures. Demonstrating an alternative, we use commercial off-the-shelf quantum-photon sources and detection equipment to synchronize two remote clocks across our freespace testbed utilizing a method called two-way quantum time transfer (QTT). We reach picosecond-scale timing precision under very lossy and noisy channel conditions representative of daytime space-Earth links and software-emulated satellite motion. This work demonstrates how QTT is potentially relevant for daytime space-Earth quantum networking and/or providing high-precision timing in GPS-denied environments.
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2307.07371