Ultra-precise timing and synchronization for large-scale scientific instruments

Ultra-precise timing has become a prerequisite for many modern large-scale scientific instruments, and timing precision is a crucial enabling factor to achieve the ultimate goals of those instruments. Here, we review the recent progress in timing technologies, including timing characterization methods among different kinds of sources (optical lasers, microwaves and x-ray pulses), large-scale free-space timing synchronization, and fiber-based timing synchronization. Technical and fundamental limitations of fiber-based timing systems are also discussed to provide future directions. (c) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement