Miniaturised Cold Atom Solutions for Timing Applications

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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.