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ATOM-LIGHT CRYSTALS IN PHOTONIC CRYSTALS

Project description

A new dance between atoms and light supports innovative atomic sensors

Highly sensitive and accurate atomic sensors are increasingly relevant to measurements in fields from biomedicine to space exploration, but they are very expensive. The principle is to isolate and "stabilise" atoms in some well-defined state, alter this with a field of some kind and measure the altered state of the atom to determine the effect of the field. Many rely on the interactions of light and matter, using electromagnetic waves produced by lasers to cool, stabilise and perturb the atoms. The EU-funded CRYST^3 project is hermetically sealing the atoms in a microstructured (photonic crystal) optical fibre, reducing the size, cost and fragility of the sensor while opening the door to novel phenomena.

Objective

All automated systems require sensing of the surrounding environment. The rising relevance of artificial intelligence in society demands sensors that are accurate, light-weighted, cheap and robust. Among the best laboratory sensors - in a broad sense including clocks, accelerometers, gyroscopes…- , those based on individual atoms stand out for their phenomenal stability and accuracy, but most are bulky and fragile, nearly all are expensive.
CRYST3 envisions a future technology where the core element, the sensor head containing the atoms, is greatly reduced in size and cost, and made more robust and more suitable for industrialization. The project will deliver the seminal contribution of a novel material where individual alkali atoms at microkelvin temperatures are encapsulated in the hollow core of a photonic crystal optical fiber, fully functionalized, hermetically sealed and integrated with light sources.
In this novel material, we expect novel physical phenomena: atoms acquire long-range interactions that are mediated by the light field and tailored through the design of the fiber; spontaneous spatial order of the atoms, akin to crystallization, emerge; light is scattered by the atoms in a collective manner that results in superradiant emission.
CRYST3 will generate the first prototype of the novel material, fully operational and customized, from numerical design, manufacturing, post-processing and testing, to industrialization assessment by a leading photonic company. The technological advancements will be intertwined with theoretical analysis and experimental demonstrations of novel loading, trapping and cooling techniques to create a large sample of ultracold atoms in a hollow-core fiber, which will serve as the platform for the scientific breakthroughs of: (1) cooling the atoms inside the fiber, (2) observing their emergent self-ordering and (3) detecting the superradiant properties of the emitted light.

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Topic(s)

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RIA - Research and Innovation action

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2020

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Coordinator

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 659 545,00
Address
VIA ZAMBONI 33
40126 Bologna
Italy

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Region
Nord-Est Emilia-Romagna Bologna
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 659 545,00

Participants (8)

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