LAMP-SEMINAR

Precision quantum sensing rests on our ability to control and interrogate coherent atomic systems. In this talk, I trace a single arc through my research — from understanding quantum coherence at a fundamental level to harnessing it for stateof-the-art timekeeping and future inertial sensing. 

The story begins with the question of how coherence survives or decays in driven quantum systems. Our studies of non-exponential decoherence in periodically kicked rotors [Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 174101 (2017)] revealed subtle structures in the quantum-classical boundary that motivate a deeper exploitation of atomic coherence. Pursuing this, we turned to atom optics — demonstrating matter-wave diffraction using an atom laser and developing cold atom-based state-of-art gradiometer [Phys. Rev. A 98, 043625 (2018); Phys. Rev. A 106, 013303 (2022)] — where coherent atomic sources become practical tools for precision measurement.

These experiences converge in our current centrepiece effort: a continuous, composite optical-clock architecture housing four cold-atom ensembles inside a single vacuum chamber. Designed to deliver the most stable frequency reference for the Dutch national time and frequency standard, this system also serves as a unique laboratory for fundamental physics, from Lorentz-invariance tests to dark-matter

searches. Extending this precision beyond a single laboratory, we combine commercial clocks through White Rabbit–based networked time scales, bringing picosecond-level synchronisation within reach for the quantum internet, radio astronomy, and resilient navigation.

I close by looking ahead to the natural next chapter: trapped atom interferometers using alkaline-earth atoms in Hermite–Gaussian and Laguerre–Gaussian optical lattice modes — uniting the coherence, atom-optics, and clock techniques developed along this journey into a new class of quantum inertial sensors