WP1: Design of the transportable clock, preliminary tests
The first Work package is dedicated to the design of the clock and to the preliminary studies necessary to test the material that will determine this design. Two technological locks are identified: the ytterbium atomic source, and the lattice trapping laser.
Targets: Vacuum system pressure at most 10-10 mbar in the 3D MOT chamber, at most a few % atomic flux instability on short time scales (a few minutes), loading of >105 171Yb atoms in <100 ms in the 556 nm 3D MOT, 80 dB suppression of the background spectrum for the 759 nm source.
WP2: Applications to Vertical Reference Systems
This WP is dedicated to the potential applications of a transportable optical clock for the improvement of the vertical reference systems realizations (high precision leveling networks and geoids).
Targets: Cost/benefit assessment of the future transportable clock-based long distance geopotential differences at the 1 cm accuracy level; contribution to the selection criteria of test sites for the clock prototype (WP4).
WP3: Monitoring geodynamics processes
WP3 is the most exploratory work package. The tasks are dedicated to the detectability of the
time-variable changes of the gravity field with optical clocks and their ability to monitor geodynamic processes on land and near coastal zones.
Targets: Assess the contribution of clock measurements for sensing large-scale temporal geopotential changes. Identify and model geodynamic signals for which clock data are interesting.
WP4: Construction of the transportable Yb lattice clock
This WP deals with the construction of the core of the Yb clock itself. The development of the
transportable optical frequency comb is part of another research program (TOCUP).
Targets: same as WP1 + more than 104 lattice trapped atoms, 1542 nm ultrastable laser with a
noise floor ~ 10-16, uncertainty in the low 10-16 after 3 years, in the low 10-17 after 4 years.
WP5: Project Management
ROYMAGE aims at building the core of the clock to reach a few 10-17 uncertainty. Reaching the 10-18 range in 4 years would be a considerable but unprecedented achievement.
Targets: 7+ papers, 3+ contributions to international conferences.