Experimental evaluation of a ruby maser at 43 GHz

Inversion ratio measurements were conducted at several frequencies between 27 and 43 GHz for a pink ruby material (0.05% Cr/3+/ in Al2O3) at the push-pull pump angle of 54.7 degrees in order to determine the upper frequency limit where pink ruby could be expected to operate as a practical maser amplifier. Based on these measurements, a single-stage maser was developed which yielded 8 + or - 1 dB net gain and a 3 dB bandwidth of 180 MHz at a center frequency of 42.5 GHz. It is concluded that a multistage reflected wave maser could achieve bandwidths exceeding 1 GHz with 30 dB net gain at center frequencies near 40 GHz.