Systematic errors in the correlation method for Johnson noise thermometry: residual correlations due to amplifiers

Johnson noise thermometers (JNT) measure the equilibrium electrical noise, proportional to thermodynamic temperature, of a sensing resistor. In the correlation method, the same resistor is connected to two amplifiers and a correlation of their outputs is performed, in order to reject amplifiers’ noise. Such rejection is not perfect: the residual correlation gives a systematic error in the JNT reading. In order to set an upper limit, or to achieve a correction, for such error, a careful electrical modelling of the amplifiers and connections must be performed. Standard numerical simulation tools are inadequate for such modelling. In the literature, evaluations have been performed by the painstaking solving of analytical modelling. We propose an evaluation procedure for the JNT error due to residual correlations which blends analytical and numerical approaches, with the benefits of both: a rigorous and accurate circuit noise modelling, and a fast and flexible evaluation with a user-friendly commercial tool. The method is applied to a simple but very effective ultralow-noise amplifier employed in a working JNT.