Spherical-sapphire-based whispering gallery mode resonator thermometer

A novel microwave whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonator based on a spherical sapphire crystal was developed at INRIM and its use as a thermometer was tested. The temperature dependence of the WGM frequencies was studied and the most promising resonance near to 13.6 GHz, with a loaded quality factor as large as 82 000, was carefully investigated. Its potential use in thermometry was evaluated through a study of its main metrological characteristics, such as the temperature sensitivity, the frequency stability, the repeatability, and the resolution at several temperatures over the temperature range -40 degrees C to 85 degrees C. Finally, the INRIM spherical sapphire thermometer was compared with the NIST SWGT, a dielectric thermometer based on a cylindrical sapphire resonator [V. B. Braginsky, V. S. Ilchenko, and Kh. S. Bagdassarov, Phys. Lett. A 120(3), 300 (1987)]. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4746991]