Measurement of the fundamental thermal noise limit in a cryogenic sapphire frequency standard using bimodal maser oscillations.
We report observations of the Schawlow-Townes noise limit in a cryogenic sapphire secondary frequency standard. The effect causes a fundamental limit to the frequency stability, and was measured through the novel excitation of a bimodal maser oscillation of a Whispering Gallery doublet at 12.04 GHz. The beat frequency of 10 kHz between the oscillations enabled a sensitive probe for this measurement of fractional frequency instability of 10(-14) tau(-1/2) with only 0.5 pW of output power.
Benmessai
Karim
K
Institut FEMTO-ST, UMR 6174 CNRS, Université de Franche, Comté, Besançon, France.
Creedon
Daniel Lloyd
DL
Tobar
Michael Edmund
ME
Bourgeois
Pierre-Yves
PY
Kersalé
Yann
Y
Giordano
Vincent
V