A Coherent Optical Fiber Link for Very Long Baseline Interferometry

Abstract

We realize a phase-stabilised optical fiber backbone that connects the Italian National Metrology Institute with two radio telescopes over a 600 km baseline. This allows referencing of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) facilities with the best atomic frequency standards available today and the implementation of a common-clock architecture, which we are now using to assess VLBI ultimate performances.