SUPERCONDUCTING ACCELEROMETER USING NIOBIUM-ON-SAPPHIRE RF RESONATOR

An accelerometer is described which uses a rf niobium-on-sapphire resonator as its sensor element. The accelerometer uses a magnetically levitated spool as a test mass and the spool modulates the inductance of the resonator; its position is servo controlled to maintain the resonator at the external rf excitation frequency. The accelerometer has high sensitivity over the full audio frequency range, but is optimized for frequencies between 100 Hz and 1 kHz, where the calculated displacement sensitivity approaches 10-15 cm for a 1 Hz measurement bandwidth. The system noise sources are analyzed and possible improvements are discussed.