Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Crampton, S. B..
A low temperature atomic hydrogen maser was developed using frozen atomic neon as the storage surface. The maser has been operated in the pulsed mode at temperatures from 6 K to 11 K and as a self-excited oscillator from 9 K to 10.5 K.
Very low temperature atomic hydrogen masers were developed. The advantages over room temperature hydrogen masers include higher radiated power due to the higher beam intensities possible using low temperature techniques and the much smaller electron spin flip cross section at low temperatures, lower cavity and amplifier noise temperatures, increased stability against mechanical creep at low temperatures, and opportunities to extend H atom collision studies to low temperatures, where quantum effects and details of the interatomic potentials are much more important.
Hydrogen maser frequency standard is more stable by addition of parallel pyrex capillary tube array collimator. With collimator, maser line width has been made as narrow as 0.24 hertz representing fivefold improvement over maser without collimator. Fluorocarbon coating in tubes virtually eliminates energy loss in collimator.
The hyperfine frequency and wall shift of hydrogen atoms at 4.2 K stored in a bulb coated with solid H2 were measured. The phase shift per wall collision is -0.29(1) rad. The adsorption energy of H on H2 is 9(2) K, and the adsorption time at 4.2 K is approximately 30 nsec. Transverse and longitudinal relaxation times have been measured, and atomic densities greater than 10 to the 14th/cu cm have been observed.
Frequency shifts due to collisions between hydrogen atoms in an atomic hydrogen maser frequency standard are studied. Investigations of frequency shifts proportional to the spin exchange frequency shift cross section and those proportional to the duration of exchange collisions are discussed. The feasibility of operating a hydrogen frequency standard at liquid helium temperatures is examined.
The research work dealt primarily with reducing the atom leakage rate using as storage surfaces the FEP Teflon surfaces conventionally used in contemporary hydrogen maser frequency standards. Some work was also done on a possible alternative to the conventional surfaces, but the results here and elsewhere suggest that the alternative surface is not promising enough to warrant much further work.
Hydrogen maser construction and operation design principles emphasizing microwave cavity, low magnetic field, hydrogen storage and maser tuning techniques