Synchronization of large facilities such as laser Megajoule

Timing systems commonly used can not perform technical requirements of large scientific instruments, like high power lasers. The Laser Megajoule (LMJ) is made of 240 independent laser beams. It must deliver a power of 2 millions joules in a few nanoseconds. This is only possible if all the bundles focus on the target at the same time (less than 15 picoseconds). CEA developed a solution based on the principle of a high rate optical digital link, ensuring the transport of a unique temporal reference in all useful areas of the building. The conceptual design is the same of radio pagers. (author)