Johnson noise thermometry measurements using a quantized voltage noise source for calibration

Abstract

We describe a new approach to Johnson noise thermometry (JNT) that exploits recent advances in Josephson voltage standards and digital signal processing techniques. Currently, high-precision thermometry using Johnson noise is limited by the nonideal performance of electronic measurement systems. By using the perfectly quantized voltage pulses from a series array of Josephson junctions, any arbitrary broadband waveform can be synthesized and used as a calculable noise source for calibrating the cross-correlation electronics used in JNT systems. With our prototype JNT system, we have found agreement to two parts in 10/sup 3/ with a 1/spl sigma/ uncertainty of 1/spl times/10/sup -3/ between the voltage noise of a 100-/spl Omega/ resistor in a triple-point Ga cell (T/sub 90/= 302.916 K) and a pseudo-noise waveform with the same average power that is synthesized by a quantized voltage noise source. We estimate the temperature of the resistor to be 302.5 K/spl plusmn/0.3 K (1/spl sigma/ uncertainty based on the uncertainty from the cross-correlation). With better characterization of our JNT system, we expect to achieve relative accuracies of parts in 10/sup 5/ for arbitrary temperatures in the range between 270 and 1000 K.