Welcome to AQuRA!
AQuRA, the Advanced Quantum Clock for Real World Applications, is a European consortium of five industry leaders, two national measurement institutes and three universities. The AQuRA clock is will be the first industry led clock prototype aiming for instability and uncertainty at around a second over the age of the universe.
Such precise and accurate clocks are crucial for the precise navigation, communications and sensing challenges that underpin our modern society. The goal of AQuRA is to make the best clocks in the world robust and compact enough for real world applications. These "optical atomic clocks" are amazingly accurate. If such a clock would have been turned on during the Big Bang, almost fourteen billion years ago, the clock would still be ahead or behind by around a second today!
AQuRA aims to make existing optical clocks smaller and more robust. Currently, these clocks do not look like the clocks in your home – they are complicated machines that fill entire laboratories. iqClock wants to make these clocks transportable, so that they can be used for measurements in the field and eventually even sent to space using satellites. This could for example make GPS systems much more accurate. AQuRA is one of the quantum technology related projects that together form the European Commission's Quantum Flagship initiative. On this website, you will find our latest news, an overview of the project's tasks, a more detailed description of the twelve partner institutes that make the project possible and open positions. as well as an overview of media appearances and materials. If you want to know more about AQuRA, don't hesitate to contact us! More about the AQuRA project... |
Recent news23 March 2024 - NRC article on optical clocks
NRC, the 4th largest daily newspaper in the Netherlands, published an article about optical atomic clocks. Journalist Dorine Schenk describes her visit to the ultracold atom lab of Florian Schreck at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), where they interviewed him and Jeroen Koelemeij (VU)about how they build optical atomic clocks and time+frequency distribution networks. They were also interested in the applications of these devices in science and society, such as the search for beyond standard model physics, navigation, telecom network synchronization and underground exploration. The full article (behind a paywall) can be found here. 23 February 2024 - Florian Schreck wins FYSICA prize
Congratulations to Florian Schreck for winning the 2024 FYSICA prize for his work on Bose Einstein condensates and their applications! The prize will be awarded during the annual FYSICA conference in Eindhoven on 12 April. Read more here. |