iqClock is a 3-year European project made up of research institutes and companies to develop a competitive European industry for optical clocks as well as strengthening and accelerating the pipeline of clock development.
In October 2018 iqClock was chosen as part of the European Union's Quantum Flagship initiative receiving €10,092,468.75 in funding.
Atomic optical clocks are the most precise time-telling tools. However, their size and complexity restricts them for use in the laboratory. The iqClock project aims to use superradiant lasers to produce new robust, compact, portable and commercially viable atomic optical clocks.
These new clocks have potential applications in many fields such as:
- Telecommunication - network synchronization, traffic bandwidth, GPS free navigation
- Geology - underground exploration, monitoring of water tables or ice sheets
- Astronomy - low-frequency gravitational wave detection, radio telescope synchronization
6 research institutes
- University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
- University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland
- Niels Bohr Institute (NBI), Denmark
- Vienna University of Technology, Austria
- University of Innsbruck, Austria
6 Companies
- Teledyne e2V, United Kingdom
- Toptica Photonics, Germany
- NKT Photonics, United Kingdom
- Acktar, Israel
- Chronos Technology Ltd, United Kingdom
- British Telecom, United Kingdom
The iqClock project is broken down into 4 tasks, each advancing a particular optical clock technology.
Constructing a compact, transportable Strontium optical lattice clock.
Demonstrating the cavity-enhanced atom-light coupling can lead to more compact and robust clocks using superradiant emissions.
Operating a superradiant clock continuously on a mHz-linewidth clock transition.
Exploring the foundations of superradiant lasers, the behavior of an ensemble of atoms coupled to a cavity.
Superradiant Cooling, Trapping and Lasing of Dipole-Interacting Clock Atoms, Christoph Hotter, David Plankensteiner, Laurin Ostermann and Helmut Ritsch. Optics Express Vol. 27, Issue 22, pp. 31193-31206 (2019). [arXiv: 1906.01945]
Continuous guided strontium beam with high phase-space density, Chun-Chia Chen, Shayne Bennetts, Rodrigo González Escudero, Benjamin Pasquiou and Florian Schreck. Phys. Rev. Applied 12, 044014 (2019). [arXiv: 1907.02793]
Sisyphus optical lattice decelerator, Chun-Chia Chen, Shayne Bennetts, Rodrigo González Escudero, Florian Schreck, and Benjamin Pasquiou. Phys. Rev. A 100, 023401 (2019). [arXiv: 1810.07157]
Timeline
iqClock received €10,092,468.75 funding for the the 3-year project.
People
Prof. Dr. Florian Schreck
Coordinator
Further reading
Continuous Guided Strontium Beam with High Phase-Space Density
Chun-Chia Chen, Shayne Bennetts, Rodrigo González Escudero, Benjamin Pasquiou, Florian Schreck
Journal
October 7, 2019
European consortium to develop compact ultraprecise optical clocks using superradiant lasers
John Wallace
Magazine
10/29/2018
Sisyphus optical lattice decelerator
Chun-Chia Chen, Shayne Bennetts, Rodrigo González Escudero, Florian Schreck, Benjamin Pasquiou
Journal
August 1, 2019
Superradiant cooling, trapping, and lasing of dipole-interacting clock atoms
Christoph Hotter, David Plankensteiner, Laurin Ostermann, and Helmut Ritsch
Academic Paper
10/28/2019
Documentaries, videos and podcasts
Companies
Acktar
Kiryat-Gat, Israel
Coatings
British Telecom
Philip Jansen
London, United Kingdom
Telecommunications
Chronos Technology Ltd
Charles Curry
Lydbrook, United Kingdom
Synchronisation & Timing Solutions
NKT Photonics Ltd
Basil Garabet
Southampton, United Kingdom
Laser Technologies
Teledyne e2V
Steve Blair
Chelmsford, United Kingdom
RF Power, Imaging, Semiconductor Solutions
Toptica Photonics
Wilhelm Kaenders
Gräfelfing, Germany
Laser Technologies