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Self-Injection Locking of a Low-Power Microwave Oscillator by Using 4-Wave Mixing in an Atomic Vapor
Published
Author(s)
Alan Brannon, Vladislav Gerginov, V Shah, Svenja A. Knappe, Z Popovic, Leo W. Hollberg, John E. Kitching
Abstract
We demonstrate self-injection locking of a compact microwave oscillator by using feedback generated from four-wave mixing in an atomic vapor. The four-wave mixing process creates an effective microwave filter with extremely high off-resonant signal suppression. This type of locking results in a faster locking time, increased short-term stability, improved close-in phase noise, reduced spurious signals, and possible reduced complexity as compared to current techniques used in miniature atomic clocks. Other possible benefits and drawbacks are mentioned.
Proceedings Title
Proc. 2007 Joint Mtg. IEEE Intl. Freq. Cont. Symp. and EFTF Conf.
Brannon, A.
, Gerginov, V.
, Shah, V.
, Knappe, S.
, Popovic, Z.
, Hollberg, L.
and Kitching, J.
(2007),
Self-Injection Locking of a Low-Power Microwave Oscillator by Using 4-Wave Mixing in an Atomic Vapor, Proc. 2007 Joint Mtg. IEEE Intl. Freq. Cont. Symp. and EFTF Conf., Geneva, -1, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50547
(Accessed October 3, 2025)