Miniaturised Cold Atom Solutions for Timing Applications

从纸上的图纸到日常生活中的物品，往往是效率的飞跃。量子技术为测量我们的环境和执行计算提供了全新的方法，但这些系统的低效率限制了它们的广泛使用。此外，控制和测量单个原子的特性（量子技术的基础）是非常困难的。直到最近，技术才实现了这一点，虽然研究人员一直专注于改进控制和测量技术，但使其更有效的工作却相对未被探索。Aquark技术公司的使命是使量子设备更小、更轻、更高效，这样这项技术就可以开始为每个人服务，而不是局限于实验室。基于南安普顿大学10多年的研究，Aquark技术公司希望利用其独特的制造和系统构建知识来创造一个能够测量时间、重力、磁场、无线电波和加速度的量子“引擎”。Aquark Technologies已经确定并申请了一项独特的突破，可以实现更高效的设计。消除三分之一的传统系统组件是通过省略在系统核心无处不在的磁场来实现的。这一突破的重要性不仅挑战了当前的传统系统，它还为完全不同的设计提供了途径，在考虑到尺寸、重量和所需功率时，将带来效率的飞跃。该项目旨在探索基于这一突破的高性能原子钟可能提供什么，并为惯性导航、电信同步、金融交易和电网监控等以前无法进入的市场提供使用机会。展示基于Aquark Technologies量子“引擎”的原子钟的价值，将为其他传感器类型和市场的可能性提供一个例子，从而为进一步研究和投资这项英国制造的创新铺平道路。

It is often a leap in efficiency that brings innovative ideas from drawings on paper to the items of everyday life. Quantum technology offers completely new ways of measuring our environment and performing computations, but inefficiencies in these systems limit their widespread use. Furthermore, controlling and measuring the properties of individual atoms, the basis that quantum technology is built upon, is exceptionally difficult to perform. It is only recently that technology allowing this has come about, and while researchers have focused on improving control and measurement techniques, work in making it more efficient has been left relatively unexplored.Aquark Technologies mission is to enable smaller, lighter and more efficient quantum devices such that this technology can begin to serve everyone, rather than stay confined to laboratories. Based on more than 10 years of research at the University of Southampton, Aquark Technologies looks to use its unique knowledge of fabrication and systems construction to create a quantum "engine" capable of making measurements of time, gravity, magnetic fields, radio waves and acceleration. Aquark Technologies have identified and patented a unique breakthrough that allows a more efficient design. Elimination of a third of a conventional systems components is achieved by omitting the magnetic fields ubiquitously required at the very core of the system. The significance of this breakthrough not only defies current conventional systems, it generates pathways for radically different designs that will bring leaps in efficiency when considering the size, weight and power required. This project sets out to explore what a high performance atomic clock based on this breakthrough may offer and enable opportunities for use in previously inaccessible markets such as inertial navigation, telecommunication synchronisation, financial transactions and electric grid monitoring.Demonstrating the value of an atomic clock based on Aquark Technologies quantum "engine" will serve as an example for what is possible for other sensor types and markets, thereby paving the way for further future research and investment into this British made innovation.