masers

I'm just curious as to why there is almost no information about masers on the web, it would be interesting to actually build one. For those of you that dont know, a maser is like a laser, but instead of light, it is a microwave amplification device. Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

apparently they can be used as clock calibration standard and direct energy weapon.

en.wikipedia.org said:

Hydrogen masers are very complex devices and sell for as much as US$235,000.

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a small storage bottle of molecular hydrogen leaks a controlled amount of gas into a discharge bulb. Molecular hydrogen consists of pairs of atoms bound together. The molecules are disassociated in the discharge bulb into individual hydrogen atoms by an arc. This atomic hydrogen passes through a collimator and a magnetic state selector. The atoms are thereby selected for the desired state and passed on to a storage bulb. The storage bulb is roughly 20 cm high and 10 cm in diameter and made of quartz. Its inside is coated with teflon. This coating slows the recombination of the hydrogen atoms into hydrogen molecules. The storage bulb is in turn inside a microwave cavity made from a precisely machined copper cylinder. This cavity is tuned to the 1420 MHz resonance frequency of the atoms...

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:worthy:

Is this what the "active denial system" employs?

Apparently it is more like a microwave oven - though of course at a different frequency - than like a maser.

"We've invested 12 years of research, development and testing into this nonlethal weapon, based on a gyrotron source that converts electricity into millimeter waves," said Diana Loree, an electrical enigneer and area manager for the Active Denial System. The project is part of DoD's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program. "Our current model is now ready for the service branches to begin planning how to use [and] we will continue to improve our design." Improvements are expected to include size and weight reductions along with a shift to high-temperature superconductors.

Gyrotrons require a superconducting magnet since an energy beam can only be generated in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The gyrotron itself is a high-powered electron tube that accelerates electrons via cyclotron motion caused by the magnetic field. The electrons travel in a circle so that the accelerating voltage can be repeatedly applied to achieve relativistic speeds (near the speed of light) before emitting. "

From here:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197000832

You can own a MASER for about $100.00 or so.. It is the heart of a rubidium time standard, The "rubidiium physics package" inside it is by definition a rubidium gas maser. It is pubped by either a laser diode or a rubidium vapor resonant lamp in manner very similar to a hydrogen maser.