A Self-Detecting Microwave Marginal Oscillator

Abstract

A very simple and compact 12 GHz marginal oscillator employs a commercial Gunn device as both microwave source and detector. The sensitivity to electron spin resonance absorption (3×1012 standard spins) is comparable to that of a conventional homodyne bridge spectrometer. As a heterodyne detector of externally generated microwaves the sensitivity is ∼10−12 W.