A New Technique for the Characterization of Cesium Beam Tube Performance

Abstract

Abstract : Cesium beam tube atomic standards tend to exhibit a decreasing beam tube current with time. This report describes a technique to measure noninvasively the product of electron multiplier gain and noise figure, as well as tube signal and noise performance, thus providing information to discriminate between possible causes of decreasing beam tube current. The technique characterizes cesium beam tube performance without measuring clock frequency stability. Consequently, no extensive analysis of long term data is required. The technique is also applicable to a simular evaluation of photomultiplier tubes. Keywords: Atomic clocks; Cesium beam tubes; Electron multiplier gain; Electron multiplier noise.