Lancaster’s Professor Janne Ruostekoski has been awarded an Established Career Fellowship by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
This is the most senior level of EPSRC Fellowship and is for a five year project on “Harnessing quantum optical phenomena in cold atomic ensembles”.
Professor Ruostekoski researches quantum optics as a member of the Lancaster University research group of theoretical condensed matter physicists.
“For this project, we are interested in harnessing strong cooperative interactions induced by light in dense atomic ensembles,” he said.
“In particular, if the atoms are cooled to low temperatures (which is now routinely done in laboratories around the world) the response of such a sample can drastically differ from the responses of ordinary atoms, or from standard textbook optics in those systems.
“This work is of a fundamental nature and strengthens the scientific basis that underpins future quantum technologies.”
Quantum technologies are currently attracting massive investments from both the public and private sector in the UK, EU, US and China.
“Quantum computing and some other more ambitious projects have gained quite a lot of attention, but it is good to remember that precision measurements are already increasingly driven by quantum technologies.
“Cold atoms are already used in the most accurate clocks to determine time that is essential for satellite navigation and GPS systems.”
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