ANALYSIS OF FUNDAMENTAL AND SYSTEMATIC EFFECTS LIMITING HYDROGEN MASER FREQUENCY STABILITY

Edward M. Mattison, Robert F.C. Vessot

Abstract:	The hydrogen maser is currently one of the most stable frequency standards currently available, providing frequency stabilities of several parts in 1016 for averaging times of 103 - 104 seconds. Further improvement to the stability of hydrogen masers requires a comprehensive understanding of the relative magnitudes of physical processes that influence frequency stability. We discuss an approach to understanding a variety of thermodynamic and systematic processes that can affect maser frequency stability." This examination enables the maser researcher and user to identify stability-limiting effects and thus to choose areas where improvements could lead to increased stability. As is true with many complex systems, overall improvements can generally be gained only by attending simultaneously to a variety of factors, Improving one aspect of the maser will not significantly increase the frequency stability if variations in another area limits the stability to a level comparable to the first. The hydrogen maser's frequency stability is affected by fundamental thermal noise and by systematic effects.
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:	433 - 444
Cite this article:	Mattison, Edward M., Vessot, Robert F.C., "ANALYSIS OF FUNDAMENTAL AND SYSTEMATIC EFFECTS LIMITING HYDROGEN MASER FREQUENCY STABILITY," Proceedings of the 21th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Redondo Beach, California, November 1989, pp. 433-444. https://doi.org/10.33012/1989.14539
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