Welcome to iqClock!iqClock, short for “integrated quantum clock”, is a European consortium of six universities and six industry partners. Together, these institutes develop the physics and technology needed to make new and better quantum clocks.
The goal of iqClock is to bring the best clocks in the world to society. 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 less than a single second today!
iqClock tackles two major challenges to reach its goal. The first is 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. The second challenge we tackle is the complexity of the clock itself. We are developing optical clocks that operate after a new principle, a bit like a laser, and that have the potential to become simpler and more robust than the current clock generation. iqClock is one of 20 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, lists of publications and open positions. as well as an overview of media appearances and materials. If you want to know more about iqClock, don't hesitate to contact us! More about the iqClock-project... |
Recent news
2 September 2021 - What is time, and how is it measured?
What is time, and how is it measured? The first episode in iqClock's new edutainment series about atomic clocks and timekeeping is now out! Watch new episodes every other Thursday on our YouTube channel. 16 September: Episode 2 published, The history of timekeeping 9 July 2021 - New vacuum chamber installed in Toruń
A busy day for the iqClock group in Toruń last week: the vacuum chamber for the new superradiant laser was installed. With all the nuts and bolts properly adjusted, we can't wait to see this shiny heart of a new clock in action!
4 March 2021 - Talk: Continuous-wave BECs and superradiant clocks
Florian Schreck was invited to give a talk about continuous-wave BECs and the iqClock superradiant clock project in the Quantum Science Seminar on 4 March 2021 (YouTube, pdf, pptx). During this talk Rodrigo González Escudero gave a short tour of the atom laser lab (YouTube) and Francesca Famá showed the iqClock lab (YouTube).
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