Surface-state hydrogen maser

Abstract

We describe a hydrogen maser operating at very low temperatures in which most of the hydrogen atoms are condensed on a superfluid helium surface in long-lived states. This proposed maser can be used to obtain information on the properties of the hydrogen–liquid-helium-surface system. In addition, it promises to be an interesting system from the point of view of nonlinear dynamics. It is found that the surface recombination to molecular hydrogen, which might be considered as undesirable, is actually necessary to achieve the masing conditions. We develop the maser equations and consider a number of realistic conditions for operation.