Cryogenic sapphire oscillator with exceptionally high long-term frequency stability

We report on the development of a sapphire cryogenic microwave resonator oscillator long-term fractional frequency stability of 2x10^-17Sqrt[τ] for integration times τ>10^3 s and negative drift of about 2.2x10^-15/day. The short-term frequency instability of the oscillator is highly reproducible and also state-of-the-art: 5.6x10^-16 for an integration time of τ~ 20 s.