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

Abstract

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 10-14τ-1/2 with only 0.5 pW of output power. © 2008 The American Physical Society.