New millisecond pulsar observation system at Communications Research Laboratory

Millisecond pulsars are attracting attention as future reference clocks because of their highly stable pulse timing. Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) has started a project which applies millisecond pulsars to time and frequency standards, and developed a basic observation system. Using this system, we can observe a millisecond pulsar, PSR1937+21, and obtain an observation precision of 10 µ s/τ which is primarily influenced by system noise. In order to improve the precision, a new observation system is now being developed. This system uses an acoustooptic spectrometer (AOS) for expansion of observation bandwidth, and high-speed devices for practical construction of the AOS. This is a new type of observation system for millisecond pulsars, and is expected to improve the observation precision. In this paper, we introduce the concept of this system and current situation in the development.