FEMTO 2ND - Femtosecond Measurement Technology Options

Project FEMTO-2ND (say "femtosecond", which is a millionth of a billionth of a second!) is a key step in the UK’s 5-year programme to bring the remarkable new concepts of quantum physics out of research labs and into the everyday world. Chronos Technology, TMD Technologies and the University of Bath’s Engineering and Physics Departments have teamed up to create the key components of these systems by using the new technique called "hollow core fibre (HCF)". They are developing the innovative technologies that are the building blocks of Quantum Clocks. This next stage in the journey will deliver the first prototype Rb filled HCF physics packages with a view to progressing to a prototype quantum clock. Soon Quantum Clocks will begin to protect our telecommunications and broadcasting systems when their critical time synchronisation, now taken from vulnerable satellites, is lost to interference, jamming or space weather storms. These new quantum physics sources of time and frequency promise the femtosecond accuracies previously unimaginable. Eventually, they may also help the UK deliver ultra-precise navigation for land, sea, air and space plus wholly new applications, including a gravity telescope.