Cryogenic Pound Circuits for Cryogenic Sapphire Oscillators

Two modern cryogenic variants of the Pound circuit have been devised to increase the frequency stability of microwave oscillators that include cryogenic sapphire-filled cavity resonators. Invented in the 1940s and named after its inventor (R. V. Pound), the original Pound circuit is a microwave frequency discriminator that provides feedback to stabilize a voltage-controlled microwave oscillator with respect to an associated cavity resonator. Heretofore, Pound circuits used in conjunction with cryogenic resonators have included room-temperature electronic components coupled to the resonators via such inter-connections as coaxial cables. The thermo mechanical instabilities of these inter-connections give rise to frequency instabilities. In a cryogenic Pound circuit of the present improved type, all of the active electronic components, the inter-connections among them, and the inter-connections between them and the resonator reside in the cryogenic environment along with the resonator and, hence, are thermo-mechanically stabilized to a large degree. Hence, further, frequency instabilities are correspondingly reduced.