Starting situation: The new definition of the SI-System links natural constants with time-reference to enable precision measurements from the kilogram, via current and voltage, to distance and many more parameters. Trusted trade between entities relies on agreed and unified measures. Thus, metrology is not only science but the backbone of economy and trade (e.g. see that the US National Institute of Standards is associated with the Department of Commerce, as is the Austrian Federal office of Metrology and Surveying). Quantum-time standards are the core of our satellite-based navigation systems like Galileo (EU), GPS (USA), Glonass (Russia), or Baidu (China). Precise clocks, synchronised globally, support reliable and trusted high-speed trading and transfer of critical data. Therefore, time-standards and the means to commercially provide these on a national and international level, are a crucial technology and critical infrastructure for any sovereign economy.
Goal: The best clocks to date are atomic clocks, based on trapped ions or neutral atoms and have achieved accuracies in the 1e-20 level. However, these clocks typically only operate in a laboratory environment. The only commercial activity in Europe here is the so-called Opticlock project, based on trapped Yb+. This ion-clock can achieve an accuracy of 1e-17. Our goal is to build an atomic clock based on the recently demonstrated nuclear transition in Thorium (J. Tiedau, M. V. Okhapkin, K. Zhang, J. Thielking, G. Zitzer, E. Peik, F. Schaden, T. Pronebner, I. Morawetz, L. Toscani De Col, F. Schneider, A. Leitner, M. Pressler, G. A. Kazakov, K. Beeks, T. Sikorsky, and T. Schumm, Laser Excitation of the Th-229 Nucleus, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 182501 (2024), kein Datum), which promises up to a one-hundred-fold higher accuracy over Yb+ at the 1e-19 level. This project leverages the scientific and industrial leadership of two Austrian teams in the two core areas of the project: The Vienna team at TU Wien has pioneered the use of the Thorium nuclear transition for clock-building, while the Innsbruck SME AQT is the world-leading provider of ion-based quantum technologies.
Added technical value: Nuclear transitions in Th ions promise increased stability together with dramatically increased robustness to external perturbations. The benefits of trapped ions over solid-state approaches are the removal of undesired effects from any bulk material, significantly improved signal to noise ratio, and unprecedented accuracy for a commercial atomic clock. This clock can, furthermore, be an Austrian foundation for a European-controlled quantum clock supply chain, as recently proposed within the ESFRI Project FOREST and initiatives of GÉANT. As an innovative approach, we intend to use a 2-photon excitation scheme, which avoids any vacuum VUV optics, making use exclusively of commercially available laser systems and detection schemes.
Added economical value: The current market for clocks is mainly dominated by Cs and Rb clocks with a smaller contribution by Hydrogen clocks (MaximiseMarketResearch) with a total addressable market (TAM) size of 500 MUSD (CoherentMarketInsights, MordorIntelligence) and expected to grow to 750-800 MUSD by 2030. Research and development on a Thorium-ion clock will, in the short run, not be able to penetrate the chips-scale atomic clock market, and can be expected to grow slowly, similar to other novel atomic clock markets, for example, such as the one for Opticlock/Yb+ clock. Thus, we estimate a serviceable addressable market (SAM) size of about 75 MEUR by 2030. Taking into account the Opticlock activity in Germany, and assuming a 50/50 share, this supports a serviceable obtainable market (SOM) size of more than 35 MEUR by the end of the decade.
Alignment with strategic call goals: The call pursues the strategy for Austria to catch up in quantum sensors and metrology. Here, Muquans has established a Rb clock, while Germany has already developed an ion-clock in the OptiClock project. Within THOR-ION we will realise both the first Austrian atomic clock, and spear-head commercialisation of nuclear-transition clocks. This activity here is perfectly aligned with quantum sensor and metrology within the “Strategic Research and Industry Agenda (SRIA 2030) for Quantum Technologies (QT) in the European Union (EU)“.
Alignment with the operative call goals: The call aims at aggressively supporting and pursuing fundamental research in quantum technologies, and the successful transfer of products and services in the domain of quantum sensors and metrology. The realisation of the first nuclear-transition clock perfectly matches this goal. The project goal can be pursued by existing modular solutions by the industry-partner, and supports the targeted establishment of higher TRL levels. The cooperation between the TU Wien and AQT in Innsbruck, furthermore, matches the target of pilot activities in metrology between established companies and Austrian universities.
