Portable strontium lattice clock for ultra stability and long holdover (POSSIBLE)

Lead Research Organisation: University of Birmingham
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

Optical clocks are so amazing that they remain accurate to within one second over the age of the universe. Bringing these clocks from the lab to fields offers great opportunities for telecommunications, navigation, sensing, and science. UK's world class optical clock technology within academia and national metrology institute (NPL) provide us with a golden opportunity to take a leading position in this strategic technology. With POSSIBLE we want to seize this opportunity and build up a sovereign capability able to build the world's most advanced quantum clocks which are field deployable. We will deliver a rugged and portable optical clock with an accuracy that approaches the best laboratory clocks. Our work builds upon the past experience and expertise gained through several projects on optical clocks. In POSSIBLE we take the lead and will deliver a 20x more accurate clock in a 3x smaller volume than the current transportable systems. This will be possible by combining the know-how of our world class groups at the University of Birmingham and national metrology institute, NPL. We will demonstrate our clock's usefulness to applications in telecom, geodesy and metrology, and by engaging with end users.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description Possible 
Organisation National Physical Laboratory
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This project is about building a transportable clock in which we are the PI. We build atomics package, optics, and integrate the entire system. Both collaborators test and validate the setup.
Collaborator Contribution NPL is the CoI and they bring their experience and expertise of metrology. In this particular project they deliver stabilised lasers using dual axis cavity. They also host the final setup at NPL in order to validate it.
Impact Not yet
Start Year 2023
 
Description EPSRC Centre-to-Centre International Clock & Oscillator Networking (ICON) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The 2023 campaign of optical clock comparison between NPL's strontium lattice clock and transportable clocks from Katori's RIKEN labs (Japan) and PTB Germany, took place at NPL, alongside visits by Katori to Hub partners at Birmingham & Nottingham. Katori is the inventor of the optical lattice clock. The comparison represents one of the necessary criteria to be investigated in preparation for a planned redefinition of the SI second in several years time.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Metrology Symposium in Australia 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This is a very special metrology symposium which takes place typically once in 7 years. I was invited to chair a session. The symposium also provided an opportunity to network and raise the profile of our group.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description QTRi in Thailand 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Keynote speaker as well as panel interviewer at meeting, 'The road to quantum innovation: Quantum Tech Research Initiative (QTRi) 2023', Thailand, Nov 10-11, 2023.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description STS conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The name of the conference is STS (Science and Technology for Society) held in Japan from Oct 2-4, 2023. I represented the QT community. It is one of the most important conferences in the world and participation is only by invitation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description colloquium in India 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact I was invited to deliver a University Colloquium, in India. It was organised on the topic 'Ultra cold quantum gases', by Central University of Rajasthan, India, March 15, 2023. The participants were the University staffs, students and general public audiences.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023