Demonstration of a Two Species Noble Gas Maser

We have demonstrated the first two species maser. Ensembles of ³He and ¹²⁹Xe gas, co-located in a double-chamber glass cell, performed simultaneous maser oscillations on their nuclear spin- 1/2 Zeeman transitions. This new device may be used for experiments requiring precision magnetometry combined with frequency measurement of a second free-running species operating in the same volume. For example, the ³He maser may serve as a magnetometer, while the ¹²⁹Xe maser may be used to search for a permanent electric dipole moment of the ¹²⁹Xe atom as a test of time reversal symmetry.