Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Journal of Physics: Photonics
Volume
8
Issue
1
Publisher
Institute of Physics Publishing Ltd.
Publication Date
12-29-2025
Journal Article Version
Accepted Manuscript
First Page
1
Last Page
10
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Abstract
We have developed an optical simulator to test real-time optical two-way time–frequency transfer at the femtosecond level capable of simulating relative motion between two linked optical clock nodes up to Mach 1.8 with no moving parts. The technique is enabled by artificially Doppler shifting femtosecond pulses from auxiliary stabilized optical frequency combs. These pulses are exchanged between the nodes to simulate the Doppler shifts observed from a changing optical path length. We can continuously scan the simulated velocity from 14 to 620 m s−1 while simultaneously measuring velocity-dependent clock shifts at much higher velocities than previously recorded. This system provides an effective testbed that allows us to explore issues and solutions to enable femtosecond-level optical time transfer between optical clocks moving at high relative velocities.
Recommended Citation
Matthew S Bigelow et al 2026 J. Phys. Photonics 8 015026 DOI: 10.1088/2515-7647/ae2daa