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

2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/165045We 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)Atomic PhysicsOpticsMeasurement of fundamental thermal noise limit in a cryogenic sapphire frequency standard using bimodal maser oscillationstext