Cryo-cooled sapphire oscillator with ultra-high stability

Abstract

We present test results and design details for the first short-term frequency standard to achieve ultra-high stability without the use of liquid helium. With refrigeration provided by a commercial cryocooler, the compensated sapphire oscillator (10 K CSO) makes available the superior short-term stability and phase noise performance of cryogenic oscillators without periodic interruptions for cryogen replacement. Technical features of the 10 K CSO include use of a a-stage cryocooler with vibration isolation by helium gas at atmospheric pressure, and a new sapphire/ruby resonator design giving compensated operation at 8-10 K with Q=1-2/spl times/10/sup 9/. Stability of the first unit shows an Allan Deviation of /spl sigma//sub y//spl les/2.5/spl times/10/sup -15/ for measuring times of 200 seconds /spl les//spl tau//spl les/600 seconds. We also present results showing the capability of the 10 K CSO to eliminate local oscillator degradation for atomic frequency standards. Configured as L.O. for the LITS-7 trapped mercury ion frequency standard, the CSO/LITS combination demonstrated a limiting performance of 3.0/spl times/10/sup -14///spl tau//sup 1/2/, the lowest value measured to date for a passive atomic frequency standard, and virtually identical to the value calculated from photon statistics.