A receiver design for the superconducting cavity-maser oscillator

A new frequency standard was demonstrated with the aid of a double phase locked loop (PLL) receiver. A superconducting cavity maser oscillator (SCMO) and a hydrogen maser are combined to show the medium term performance of the hydrogen maser together with improved short term performance made possible by the SCMO. The receiver, which generates a 100 MHz signal with reduced noise, is phase locked to (and may be used in place of) the 100 MHz hydrogen maser output. The maser signal, 2.69xxx-GHz SCMO output, and a 100 MHz quartz crystal oscillator are optimally combined by the receiver. A measured two source fractional frequency stability of 2 x 10(exp -14) was obtained for a measuring time of r = 1 sec, and 1 x 10(exp -15) at r = 1,000 sec. The 1 sec value is approx. 10 times lower than that for hydrogen masers, while the 1,000 sec value is identical to hydrogen maser performance. The design is based on phase noise models for the hydrogen maser, the SCMO, and quartz crystal oscillators for offset frequencies down to 1 x 10(exp -6) Hz.