Toward the realization of a primary low-pressure standard using a superconducting microwave resonator

We describe a primary gas pressure standard based on the measurement of the refractive index of helium gas using a microwave resonant cavity in the range between 500 Pa and 20 kPa. To operate in this range, the sensitivity of the microwave refractive gas manometer (MRGM) to low-pressure variations is substantially enhanced by a niobium coating of the resonator surface, which becomes superconducting at temperatures below 9 K, allowing one to achieve a frequency resolution of about 0.3 Hz at 5.2 GHz, corresponding to a pressure resolution below 3 mPa at 20 Pa. The determination of helium pressure requires precise thermometry but is favored by the remarkable accuracy achieved by ab initio calculations of the thermodynamic and electromagnetic properties of the gas. The overall standard uncertainty of the MRGM is estimated to be of the order of 0.04%, corresponding to 0.2 Pa at 500 and 8.1 Pa at 20 kPa, with major contributions from thermometry and the repeatability of microwave frequency measurements. A direct comparison of the pressures realized by the MRGM with the reference provided by a traceable quartz transducer shows relative pressure differences between 0.025% at 20 kPa and -1.4% at 500 Pa.