Exchange Collisions, Wall Interactions, and Resettability of the Hydrogen Maser

Abstract

Experiments were performed in order to verify the resettability of the hydrogen maser. The method consisted of measuring the output frequency of one maser against the hydrogen pressure. It was found that at a given tuning of the cavity no shift larger than 2.1 parts in 1013 was observed for a change of 4 to 1 in pressure. This experiment also showed that the pressure shift due to exchange collisions, predicted by Bender, could not be observed for the field-independent transition in the hydrogen maser. Two masers, having the same storage bulb design and the same wall coating, were tuned by this technique and were found to have a frequency difference of 7.6 parts in 1013. Experiments on the wall coating of the hydrogen maser storage bulb were made. Relaxation and decorrelation times of various materials were measured. The hyperfine splitting of the ground state of hydrogen measured against cesium is also given.