The industrial sector of information technology and telecommunications must provide data with accurate timestamps to ensure correct processing and to minimize potential errors that can lead to data loss and corruption. Accurate timestamping is ensured by primary frequency references, or clocks, that provide time-standards for data and computing centers as well as telecommunications infrastructure. After decades of engineering, current microwave technologies are fundamentally limited by the microwave transition used for the clock, and as such, no longer meet the information technology and telecommunications sector’s growing demand for scalable, highly accurate, and readily available primary frequency references – with currently emerging quantum clock technology based on optical transitions providing an ideal alternative.

The key objective of the BMFTR project “ScaROC” is to develop a highly compact and scalable quantum clock based on the optical two-photon transition in rubidium vapor as it combines the higher achievable frequency stability of an optical transition with relatively low system complexity and demands on the laser system (as opposed to, e.g., a quantum lattice clock).

In the project, Menlo Systems will develop a compact optical frequency comb, serving as the clockwork, and will carry out the systems integration of the clock.