Maser oscillation in a whispering-gallery-mode microwave resonator -: art. no. 224104

We report the observation of above-threshold maser oscillation in a whispering-gallery (WG)-mode resonator, whose quasitransverse-magnetic, 17th-azimuthal-order WG mode, at a frequency of approximately 12.038 GHz, with a loaded Q of several hundred million, is supported on a cylinder of monocrystalline sapphire. An electron spin resonance associated with Fe3+ ions, that are substitutively included within the sapphire at an effective concentration of a few parts per billion, coincides in frequency with that of the (considerably narrower) WG mode. By applying a cw "pump" to the resonator at a frequency of approximately 31.34 GHz, with no applied dc magnetic field, the WG ("signal") mode is energized through a three-level maser scheme. Preliminary measurements demonstrate a frequency stability (Allan deviation) of a few times 10(-14) for sampling intervals up to 100 s. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.