EU funded EMPIR projects USOQS and CC4C joined forces again for a workshop close to the completion of the projects to present their work set in context with international research in this free workshop held over three days.  12 presentations by project-internal and external speakers from the quantum metrology, precision measurement and quantum information areas were given. As can be expected in this field it was all over the place; globally with speakers from 7 countries  and attendees waking up early or burning the midnight oil, and on the Bloch-sphere no area was left untouched. See the full programme here.

 

EMPIR optical clocks project advances fundamental research

The stability of an optical clock is limited by two noise processes: the quantum projection noise due to the number of atoms and the noise due to the laser used to interrogate them. Work performed at PTB (Germany’s National Metrology Institute) addresses the latter. To overcome the limits posed by the laser, its phase noise is measured several time during a Ramsey excitation, a form of interferometry between the phase of a quantum state and the phase of an electromagnetic field used to measure transition frequencies of particles. This technique can be exploited to improve the clock stability and accuracy allowing more accurate and faster frequency measurements.

This work is described in the open access paper Dynamical decoupling of laser phase noise in compound atomic clocks in the journal Communications Physics.

 

Online workshop held from 5 to 8 October 2020
Next-generation quantum clocks

EU projects QUANTERA Q-Clocks, EMPIR USOQS and EMPIR CC4C joined forces for an online workshop held on 5 to 8 October 2020 on new perspectives to realise the next generations of quantum clocks. The workshop was a great opportunity to learn about these new techniques and their application in the field of time and frequency metrology.  8 tutorial lectures were presented by world leading scientists. Participants from 12 different countries across the world attended the talks live in groups of 58 to 137. A virtual poster session with 6 posters and break-out chat rooms was also held.  You can find details here. Links to videos can be found here

USOQs midterm preparation meeting

Partners met at NPL in Teddington, UK on 4th December 2019 at the halfway point of the project to review progress ahead of the midterm report.

 

Workshop on Advanced Quantum Systems for Precision Measurement Technologies

The USOQs team held a workshop on Advanced Quantum Systems for Precision Measurement Technologies on 3rd December 2019 at Imperial College London. 20 PhD students and post-docs attended to hear 8 talks from the project partners and participate in discussions. The agenda is available at this link.

 

Number-resolved imaging of ⁸⁸Sr atoms at UDUR

UDUR demonstrated single atom imaging in a low numerical aperture tweezer of single atoms with fidelity >0.99, as well as number resolved detection of zero, one and two atoms. Find out a bit more  here.

 

Microtraps at the National Quantum Technologies Showcase 2019

NPL exhibited their low noise ion microtrap at National Quantum Technologies Showcase 2019 on 15th November. This is an annual one-day event highlighting quantum technologies that have the potential for the creation of new markets and economic benefit. NPL’s platform is created in a parallel and monolithic MEMS process removing the need for manual post-assembly of parts and enabling a precise and repeatable geometry.

 

Microtraps at the National Quantum Technologies Showcase 2018

NPL’s segmented linear ion microtrap platform for scalable entanglement based operations was exhibited at the UK’s 2018 National Quantum Technologies Showcase on 9th November.  An earlier operated trap was displayed in its compact ultra-high vacuum and electronic package alongside an electronically packaged example of the latest generation trap to view under a stereo microscope highlighting the precise 3-dimensional lay-out.

 

USOQS kick-off meeting

The kick-off meeting for the USOQS project was held at INRiM in Torino, Italy on 02 July 2018, with representatives from participating NMIs, institutes and universities presenting their capabilities and planned contributions to the project.