DETERMINING OPTIMUM C-FIELD SETTINGS THAT MINIMIZE OUTPUT FREQUENCY VARIATIONS IN CESIUM ATOMIC FREQUENCY STANDARDS

S.K. Karuza, W.A. Johnson, J.P. Hurrell, F.J. Voit

Abstract:	De Marchi at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) performed an experiment on Hewlett-Packard cesium (Cs) frequency standards, in which be showed that there exist optimum values of the C-field that make the output frequency insensitive to variations in microwave power. Moreover, and most important, De Marchi demonstrated that the long-term stability of the Cs standard was improved at these optimum values of the C-field. To see if these results could be obtained with standards made by different manufacturers and having different modulation schemes and Cs tube designs, we performed a similar study using a completely automated measurement system on four Cs standards made by two other manufacturers. Our results, similar to those of De Marchi, showed that there are similar optimum C-field settings in these standards; furthermore, they showed that it may be more important to tune the microwave cavity precisely to the center Cs resonance frequency (J.) than it is to set the C-field at an optimum value, The best procedure of course is to do both, i.e., to tune the cavity to the Cs resonance frequency as well as set an optimum C-field.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 21th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting November 28 - 30, 1989 Sheraton Hotel Redondo Beach, California
Pages:	385 - 400
Cite this article:	Karuza, S.K., Johnson, W.A., Hurrell, J.P., Voit, F.J., "DETERMINING OPTIMUM C-FIELD SETTINGS THAT MINIMIZE OUTPUT FREQUENCY VARIATIONS IN CESIUM ATOMIC FREQUENCY STANDARDS," Proceedings of the 21th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Redondo Beach, California, November 1989, pp. 385-400. https://doi.org/10.33012/1989.14534
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