Development of Superconducting-Cavity Stabilized Oscillators from 1971-1977.
Abstract
Superconducting cavities had been investigated as frequency determining elements of oscillators prior to when our work began at Stanford in 1971. Most of that work had been done at the Institute of Fundamental Electronics at the University of Paris at Orsay under the direction of Professor Septier. Although they successfully tested a number of oscillator techniques using a superconducting cavity as the frequency reference, the stability of these oscillators were limited to about 10 to the 11th power(delta f/f) for short term frequency fluctuations. At Stanford, we estimated that a very high frequency stability of 10 to the-16th power(delta f/f) should be possible using superconducting niobium cavities with an unloaded Q of 10 to the 11th power along with available experimental techniques. Unloaded Q's of 10 to the 11th power had already been demonstrated at Stanford for superconducting niobium cavities. To achieve an oscillator utilizing a superconducting cavity, we designed a circuit which stabilizes a Gunn oscillator at X-band to a superconducting cavity at 8.6 GHz. We called this oscillator system a superconducting-cavity stabilized oscillator (SCSO). Our first test showed that this circuit worked satisfactorily and a short-term frequency stability of 10 to the -12th power(delta f/f) was achieved. The development work on the SCSO proceeded in a number of steps after the SCSO circuit was shown to work satisfactorily.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA044468
Entities
Organizations
- Stanford University