SLATE: Strontium Lattice for Commercial Optical Clocks

从实现无卫星导航到保护电子金融交易的完整性，精确计时在经济中发挥着至关重要的作用。目前最先进的商业计时系统使用的是微波频率原子钟，但商业光频原子钟预计将在未来4年内推出，有望比目前的技术提高100倍或更好。这将使潜艇导航的精度从24小时内的2公里提高到几个月后的100米。它还将防止由于金融部门的时机错误而造成的数百万英镑的损失。在这个项目中，M Squared激光公司将与伯明翰大学一起设计和制造基于锶原子的商业原子钟的核心部件。作为这一新量子技术开发领域的先行者，我们将开发紧凑型真空室、稳定的激光光源和坚固的电子封装，以促进新的最先进精密计时技术的更广泛采用。

Precision timing plays a vital role in the economy, from enabling satellite-free navigation to protecting the integrity of electronic financial trading. The current state-of-the-art commercial timing systems use microwave frequency atomic clocks, but commercial optical frequency atomic clocks are expected to be available within the next 4 years, promising a 100x improvement or better over current technology. This will enable submarine navigation to improve from 2 km accuracy over a 24 hr period to 100 m accuracy over several months. It will also prevent millions of pounds in losses due to timing errors in the financial sector. In this project, M Squared Lasers, together with the University of Birmingham, will design and build the core components of a commercial atomic clock based on the strontium atom. As forerunners in this field of new quantum technology development, we will develop compact vacuum chambers, stable laser sources, and robust electronics packages that will facilitate wider adoption of a new precision timing state-of-the-art.