rockn program make optical atomic clocks

Rockn program make optical atomic clocks portable#

ROCkN is a four-year program consisting of two, two-year phases. The second technical area calls for performers to develop an optical atomic clock in a transportable package that could 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 clock will need to withstand temperature, acceleration, and vibrational noise for use on board aircraft, vehicles, or satellites.

Rockn program make optical atomic clocks portable#

In the first area, performers will be tasked to design a portable optical atomic clock that could fit on a fighter jet or satellite providing picosecond (trillionth of a second) accuracy for 100 seconds. The second area focuses on building a larger, but still transportable, optical clock with unprecedented holdover performance. The program is divided into two technical areas: The first focuses on developing a robust, high-precision small portable optical clock. This program could create many of the critical technologies, components, and demonstrations leading to a potential future networked clock architecture.”

“If we’re successful, these optical clocks would provide a 100x increase in precision, or decrease in timing error, over existing microwave atomic clocks, and demonstrate improved holdover of nanosecond timing precision from a few hours to a month. “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. ROCkN will leverage DARPA-funded research over the past couple decades that has led to lab demonstration of the world’s most precise optical atomic clocks.1 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. To address this scenario, DARPA has announced the Robust Optical Clock Network (ROCkN) program, which aims to create optical atomic clocks with low size, weight, and power (SWaP) that yield timing accuracy and holdover better than GPS atomic clocks and can be used outside a laboratory. If GPS were jammed by an adversary, time synchronization would rapidly deteriorate and threaten military operations. A timing error of just a few billionths of a second can translate to positioning being off by a meter or more. High-tech missiles, sensors, aircraft, ships, and artillery all rely on atomic clocks on GPS satellites for nanosecond timing accuracy.

Synchronizing time in modern warfare – down to billionths and trillionths of a second – is critical for mission success.