Short Term Frequency Stability Tests of Two Cryogenic Sapphire Oscillators

Ultra-high short-term frequency stability has been realized in microwave oscillators based on liquid helium cooled sapphire resonators which operate on the same Whispering Gallery mode. Two cryogenic sapphire oscillators were built to evaluate their stability at short averaging times. These oscillators exhibited a fractional frequency stability of 1.1×10 -15 at an averaging time of 1 s, which is more than 100 times better than that of a hydrogen maser. For averaging times between 2 and 640 s the measured oscillator fractional frequency instability was below 10 -15 with a minimum of 5.5×10 -16 at an averaging time of 20 s. The noise floors of the control servos which contribute to the short-term frequency stability are also discussed.