Passive Maser Development at NRL

J. White, A. Frank, V. Folen

Abstract: The Naval Research Laboratory has been investigating the application of passive hydrogen masers to satellites. This effort has included development of a working small maser at NRL and contractual support of work at Hughes Research Laboratory and the National Bureau of Standards. The NRL maser is of compact design suitable for the space environment. It is based on a dielectrically loaded sapphire cavity and uses a computer optimized set of four shields. The mechanical structure was developed in a cooperative effort with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The servo design is a novel phase sensitive method which directly measures the phase dispersion of the interrogating signal as it passes through the cavity. Test results will be presented. A brief synopsis of the results of the contractual work will also be presented.
Published in: Proceedings of the 12th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting
December 2 - 4, 1980
Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
Pages: 495 - 513
Cite this article: White, J., Frank, A., Folen, V., "Passive Maser Development at NRL," Proceedings of the 12th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Greenbelt, Maryland, December 1980, pp. 495-513.
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