DIAS Event: Quantum Timekeeping, a simple story of atoms and photons, by Davide Calonico, Scientific Director of INRIM

Quantum Timekeeping, a simple story of atoms and photons, by Davide Calonico, Scientific Director of INRIM 

About the lecture
How an Atomic clock is able to beat with an attosecond precision? May clocks measure tides? What time is it on the Moon? How can we stop and cool atoms with lasers? Is the definition of the unit of time the second still satisfactory? These questions, and many more, concern one of the most precise quantum technologies developed by humankind, the exploitation of the quantum structure of atoms with atomic clocks. In the lecture, we will illustrate the fundamentals of atomic timekeeping, following the key advances in science and technology that led to present accuracy of one attosecond. As well we will describe how precise clocks contribute to science and modern society, from testing the standard model of particles to general relativity, from pervasive technologies like satellite navigation and telecommunication to timestamping of financial transition. We will talk a bit on modern laser cooling techniques, the possibility of using nuclear clocks, the miniaturization of clocks with nanotechnologies and last, we will discuss the roadmap towards the new definition of the unit of time in the International System of Units in the Convention of the meter, in a journey embracing the last 70 years of our everyday life. Last, the roadmap of the redefinition will bring us to touch other quantum technologies: the relevance of coherent interferometry on optical fibers, hence the possibility to have time and quantum communication on the same optical fiber, enabling infrastructures like the Italian Quantum Backbone and the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI).

About the speaker
Davide Calonico is the Scientific Director of INRIM, Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, an Italian Public Research Institute that is also the Italian Institute of Metrology in the convention of the Metre.  DDC is a physicist expert in primary metrology and quantum technologies. Its main scientific achievements are in atomic clocks, sensing, and quantum communication over fiber. DC coordinates the Italian Quantum backbone, that realizes in Italy the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure of the European Commission. He is the scientific responsible for INRIM of the infrastructure Piquet, Piemonte Quantum Enabling Technology, devoted in INRIM to metrology on a chip. He developed several atomic clocks based on laser-cooled atoms like Cesium Rubidium, Ytterbium, and Strontium, and microstructured clocks based on nanotechnologies

The event is organized by Aglae Pizzone