IUCAA Brochure 2024

Quantum Technologies The Precision & Quantum Measurement Laboratory (PQM lab) at IUCAA is developing a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to explore the fundamental aspects of science using optical atomic clocks as a quantum sensor. The lab's research interests involve developing quantum phenomena-based technologies for metrology-grade measurements and accurate sensing. The heart of the experimental setup is a trapped ytterbium-ion-based quantum clock. For this, we shall probe the highly forbidden electric octupole (E3) transition at 467 nmwavelength of a single trapped and laser-cooled ytterbium-ion. To excite that clock transition, an ultra-stable sub-Hz line-width laser will be produced by referencing the laser to an indigenously Since the conceptualization of Quantum Mechanics, we are now in an era of a second quantum revolution, when several countries in the world, including India, are advanc i ng cut t i ng-edge quantum-enhanced technologies in computation, communication, sensing, andmetrology. developed ultra-stable Fabry-Pérot cavity. Upon development, the change in the tick rates of such clocks is altered by unimaginably tiny perturbations of the energy states associated with the clock transition. The resulting shift in tick rates of the clock could be caused by variations of the fundamental constants, breaking of fundamental symmetries, gravitational red-shifts at the submillimeter scale, gravitational waves, cosmic microwave background, and so on. For such scientific explorations, the lab-based clocks must be part of a geographically distributed “quantum clock network.” To pursue this, the reference clock photonsmust be disseminated fromone node to another within the clock network using “phase stabilized optical fibers”; the PQM lab has already developed the required technology.