title: ELISA: a cryocooled 10 GHz oscillator with 10(-15) frequency stability.
abstract: This article reports the design, the breadboarding, and the validation of an ultrastable cryogenic sapphire oscillator operated in an autonomous cryocooler. The objective of this project was to demonstrate the feasibility of a frequency stability of 3x10(-15) between 1 and 1000 s for the European Space Agency deep space stations. This represents the lowest fractional frequency instability ever achieved with cryocoolers. The preliminary results presented in this paper validate the design we adopted for the sapphire resonator, the cold source, and the oscillator loop.
authors.affiliation: Department of Time and Frequency, FEMTO-ST Institute, UMR 6174 CNRS-ENSMM, 32 av. de l'Observatoire, Besançon Cedex 25044, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grop
authors.forename: P Y
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Bourgeois
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bazin
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kersalé
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rubiola
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Langham
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oxborrow
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Clapton
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: De Vicente
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Giordano