“The goal is to transition optical atomic clocks from elaborate laboratory configurations to small and robust versions that can operate outside the lab,” said Tatjana Curcic, program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office. At the end of the program, synchronization between stationary, mobile, and airborne clocks will be demonstrated with timing precision sufficient for 100 GHz distributed coherence. ROCkN is a four-year program consisting of two two-year phases. This clock should fit on a Navy ship or in a field tent to provide GPS-equivalent, nanosecond precision for 30 days in the absence of GPS. The second phase will focus on building a larger but still transportable optical clock with unprecedented holdover performance. Also, it will need to withstand temperature, acceleration, and vibrational noise for use onboard aircraft, vehicles, or satellites. The portable optical clock should be capable of providing picosecond (trillionth of a second) accuracy for 100 seconds. The first phase will involve developing a robust, high-precision small portable optical clock that can fit on a fighter jet or satellite. The program will consist of two separate phases. ROCkN clocks will not be as precise as the best lab optical clocks, but they will surpass current state-of-the-art atomic clocks in both precision and holdover while maintaining low SWaP in a robust package. ROCkN will leverage DARPA-funded research over the past couple of decades that has led to lab demonstration of the world’s most precise optical atomic clocks.
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