Quantum Technologies – atomic clocks

Team

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Dr Alan Bregazzi

PhD student

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Dr Matt Jamieson

Research associate

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Dr Sean Dyer

Postdoc

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Dr Steven Johnson

Research associate

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Prof Erling Riis

Professor

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Prof Paul Griffin

Professor

Precision timing is essential in the GPS navigation system, for financial markets and for fundamental science. The ultimate timekeepers are atoms, as microwave and optical transitions within a collection of isolated and most importantly identical single atoms form the ultimate accurate and precise frequency reference. Atomic clocks using the same atoms cooled down 108 times lower than room temperature atoms can yield 104 times better sensitivity simply because they are 104 times slower and we can measure their transitions correspondingly longer.

Our cold atom clock experiments are aided by our expertise in grating magneto-optical traps (GMOTs). The general principle is illustrated below, and highlighted in these news items: Nature Nanotech paper, May 2013 cover + News and Views. The GMOT arose as a planar geometry extension of our shadow-free 4-beam pyramidal magneto-optical trap. Diffraction gratings are used to split and steer a single incoming beam into e.g. a tripod of diffracted beams, allowing trapping in the four-beam overlap volume. Using the technique with our micro-fabricated gratings we trap and subsequently sub-Doppler cool 87Rb atoms to a recent record of 3$\mu$K. Our latest paper on the use of GMOTs for an atomic clock, is available here.

This work is part of the continuing UK Quantum Technology Hub in Sensing and Metrology.

Funding


Publications

A cold-atom Ramsey clock with a low volume physics package. Scientific Reports 14, (2024).

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Optimal binary gratings for multi-wavelength magneto-optical traps. Optics Express 31, 40871–40880 (2023).

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A grating-chip atomic fountain. Applied Physics Letters 121, 164001 (2022).

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Micro-machined deep silicon atomic vapor cells. Journal of Applied Physics 132, 134401 (2022).

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Micro-fabricated components for cold atom sensors. Review of Scientific Instruments 93, 091101 (2022).

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A simple imaging solution for chip-scale laser cooling. Applied Physics Letters 119, 184002 (2021).

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Stand-alone vacuum cell for compact ultracold quantum technologies. Applied Physics Letters 119, 124002 (2021).

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Towards a compact, optically interrogated, cold-atom microwave clock. Advanced Optical Technologies 9, 297–303 (2020).

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