An experimental study of intermodulation effects in an atomic fountain frequency standard

The short-term stability of passive atomic frequency standards, especially in pulsed operation, is often limited by local oscillator noise via intermodulation effects. We present an experimental demonstration of the intermodulation effect on the frequency stability of a continuous atomic fountain clock where, under normal operating conditions, it is usually too small to observe. To achieve this, we deliberately degrade the phase stability of the microwave field interrogating the clock transition. We measure the frequency stability of the locked, commercial-grade local oscillator, for two modulation schemes of the microwave field: square-wave phase modulation and square-wave frequency modulation. We observe a degradation of the stability whose dependence with the modulation frequency reproduces the theoretical predictions for the intermodulation effect. In particular no observable degradation occurs when this frequency equals the Ramsey linewidth. Additionally we show that, without added phase noise, the frequency instability presently equal to 2x10-13 at 1s, is limited by atomic shot-noise and therefore could be reduced were the atomic flux increased

Millimeter-wave FET modeling based on a frequency extrapolation approach

An empirical distributed model, based on electromagnetic analysis and standard S-parameter measurements up to microwave frequencies, is shown to be capable of accurate small-signal predictions up to the millimeter-wave range. The frequency-extrapolation approach takes advantage from a physically-expected, smooth behavior of suitably defined elementary active devices connected to a passive distributed network. On this basis, small-signal millimeter-wave FET modeling becomes an affordable task in any laboratory equipped with a standard microwave vector network analyzer and electromagnetic simulation capabilities. In the paper, wide experimental validation of the proposed model up to 110GHz is presented for PHEMT devices with different sizes and bias conditions

Global modeling approach to the design of an MMIC amplifier using Ohmic Electrode-Sharing Technology

An innovative technique for high--density, high-frequency integrated circuit design is proposed.The procedure exploits the potentialities of a global modeling approach,previously applied only at device level,enabling the circuit designer to explore flexible layout solutions imed at important reduction in chip size and cost.The new circuit design technique is presented by means of an example consisting of a wide-band amplifier,implemented with the recently proposed Ohmic Electrode-Sharing Technology (OEST).The good agreement between experimental and simulated results confirms the validity of the proposed MMIC design approach

A phase-locked frequency divide-by-3 optical parametric oscillator

Accurate phase-locked 3:1 division of an optical frequency was achieved, by using a continuous-wave (cw) doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator. A fractional frequency stability of 2*10^(-17) of the division process has been achieved for 100s integration time. The technique developed in this work can be generalized to the accurate phase and frequency control of any cw optical parametric oscillator.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures in a postscript file. To appear in a special issue of IEEE Trans. Instr. & Meas., paper FRIA-2 presented at CPEM'2000 conference, Sydney, May 200

Sub-100 attoseconds optics-to-microwave synchronization

We use two fiber-based femtosecond frequency combs and a low-noise carrier suppression phase detection system to characterize the optical to microwave synchronization achievable with such frequency divider systems. By applying specific noise reduction strategies, a residual phase noise as low as -120 dBc/Hz at 1 Hz offset frequency from a 11.55 GHz carrier is measured. The fractional frequency instability from a single optical-to-frequency divider is 1.1E-16 at 1 s averaging down to below 2E-19 after only 1000 s. The corresponding rms time deviation is lower than 100 attoseconds up to 1000 s averaging duration.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

The Role of Scanning Electron Microscopy in Periodontal Research

During recent years a great amount of research has led to a better understanding of the etiology, pathogenesis and pattern of progression of periodontal diseases. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has contributed to this improvement, mainly with respect to histology of periodontal tissues, the description of the morphology and distribution of bacteria on the exposed root surface, analysis of the host-parasite interactions on the gingival pocket wall, and morphological evaluation of root treatment. This review deals with all these topics. Unusual types of SEM research are also described and discussed. Uncommon sample preparation techniques for SEM in periodontal research are described. SEM in periodontal research should be of great application in the near future. Cathodoluminescence, backscattered emission and immunolabelling techniques will be formidable tools in this field of dentistry

Equivalent-voltage approach for modeling low-frequency dispersive effects in microwave FETs

In this paper, a simple and efficient approach for the modeling of low-frequency dispersive phenomena in FETs is proposed. The method is based on the definition of a virtual, nondispersive associated device controlled by equivalent port voltages and it is justified on the basis of a physically-consistent, charge-controlled description of the device. Dispersive effects in FETs are accounted for by means of an intuitive circuit solution in the framework of any existing nonlinear dynamic model. The new equivalent-voltage model is identified on the basis of conventional measurements carried out under static and small signal dynamic operating conditions. Nonlinear experimental tests confirm the validity of the proposed approach