Time Transfer Bread Board Control and Verification

Kurzfassung

This thesis contributes to the COMPASSO mission by designing, implementing and validating a laboratory-based pre-OPLL control system. The system employs a dual actuation approach, combining thermal tuning with piezo actuation, to achieve rapid frequency alignment between RX master and Local Oscillator slave lasers to within the bandwidth of the OPLL. A Python control loop was developed alongside a custom Graphical User Interface and datalogger to enhance usability, monitoring and characterisation. Experimental validation demonstrated lock acquisition within approximately 25 seconds for frequency offsets of up to 350 MHz. Once locked, the system maintained an absolute frequency offset below 2 MHz over 100 seconds, confirming both accuracy and stability for proof of concept testing. The GUI provided visualisation of system parameters, while the datalogger enabled comprehensive analysis of performance trends. These results validate the feasibility of the control loop for space based applications. While the current system was limited by the absence of piezo integration in the final setup and restricted to laboratory conditions, the demonstrated methodology offers a strong foundation for future refinement.