Measurement of fundamental thermal noise limit in a cryogenic sapphire frequency standard using bimodal maser oscillations

Benmessai, Karim; Creedon, Daniel Lloyd; Tobar, Michael Edmund; Bourgeois, Pierre-Yves; Kersale, Yann; Giordano, Vincent

Measurement of fundamental thermal noise limit in a cryogenic sapphire frequency standard using bimodal maser oscillations

Authors

Benmessai, Karim

Creedon, Daniel Lloyd

Tobar, Michael Edmund

Bourgeois, Pierre-Yves

Kersale, Yann

Giordano, Vincent

Description

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 $10^{-14}τ^{-1/2}$ with only 0.5 $pW$ of output power.
Published in PRL 100, 233901 (2008)