Conveners
Microwave Clocks and Oscillators
- Enrico Rubiola (CNRS FEMTO-ST Institute, and INRiM)
We show that low-phase noise and high-frequency stability can be simultaneously achieved in microwave sapphire oscillators. We describe the 9 GHz sapphire oscillator with interferometric signal processing, which was phase-locked to a stable RF reference by controlling microwave power dissipated in the sapphire resonator. The SSB phase noise of the oscillator was measured to be close to -170...
Atomic fountain clocks have become ubiquitous in maintaining the most stable national time scales within nanoseconds of UTC. After three decades of development, they offer accuracy of about 1 part in 10^16. Recent efforts have been aiming at increased reliability and robust commercial design. We present the distinctive design approach and performance of the NPL built fountains, as well as...
The Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES) mission is developing high performance clocks and links for space to test Einstein's theory of general relativity. From the International Space Station, the ACES payload will distribute a clock signal with fractional frequency instability and inaccuracy of $1\times10^{-16}$ establishing a worldwide network to compare clocks in space and on ground. ACES...
