A Room-Temperature Solid-State Maser Amplifier
arXiv:2405.07486 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.14.041066
Abstract
Masers once represented the state-of-the-art in low noise microwave amplification technology, but eventually became obsolete due to their need for cryogenic cooling. Masers based on solid-state spin systems perform most effectively as amplifiers, since they provide a large density of spins and can therefore operate at relatively high powers. Whilst solid-state masers oscillators have been demonstrated at room temperature, continuous-wave amplification in these systems has only ever been realized at cryogenic temperatures. Here we report on a continuous-wave solid-state maser amplifier operating at room temperature. We achieve this feat using a practical setup that includes an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy center spins in a diamond crystal, a strong permanent magnet and simple laser diode. We describe important amplifier characteristics including gain, bandwidth, compression power and noise temperature and discuss the prospects of realizing a room-temperature near-quantum-noise-limited amplifier with this system. Finally, we show that in a different mode of operation the spins can be used to cool the system noise in an external circuit to cryogenic levels, all without the requirement for physical cooling.
References in corpus (8)
- Efficient and robust analysis of complex scattering data under noise in microwave resonators
- Spectroscopic properties of inhomogeneously broadened spin ensembles in a cavity
- High-gain weakly nonlinear flux-modulated Josephson parametric amplifier using a SQUID-array
- A near-ideal degenerate parametric amplifier
- Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics Effects with Nitrogen Vacancy Center Spins in Diamond and Microwave Resonators at Room Temperature
- Bench-top Cooling of a Microwave Mode using an Optically Pumped Spin Refrigerator
- Quasi-Continuous Cooling of a Microwave Mode on a Benchtop using Hyperpolarized NV Diamond
- Maser Threshold Characterization by Resonator Q-Factor Tuning