Yb/Sr optical clock comparison at 2.2E-18 uncertainty over a 1350-km fiber link
Redefining the International system of Units (SI) second requires independent frequency-ratio measurements between clocks based on different laboratories, with an overall uncertainty below 5E-18, to validate individual clock evaluations through consistency checks. Reaching this uncertainty over long distances has remained challenging. So far, comparisons at this level have been achieved only a few times, between co-located clocks, and their results disagree markedly. Previous high-precision comparisons have therefore been limited to local or kilometre-scale links. Here we compare a ytterbium optical lattice clock in Wuhan with a strontium optical lattice clock in Shanghai over a phase-stabilized fiber link spanning 1350 km, and determine the Yb/Sr frequency ratio to be 1.207 507 039 343 337 716 0(26), with a Bayesian statistical uncertainty of 1.14E-18 and a total uncertainty of 2.18E-18. To our knowledge, this is the first intercity long distance frequency-ratio measurement, whose total uncertainty reaches the level required by the redefinition roadmap. The measured ratio exhibits a significant correlation with Earth tides and its response agree with the model within the statistical uncertainty. At intercity scale, this comparison demonstrates the capability of an optical-clock network for frequency comparison and Earths gravitational-potential sensing, a key step toward a wide-area optical-clock network.