Postdoctoral position in atom interferometry with squeezed Sr for gravitational wave detection
GB
Job summary
The High Energy Physics Group at Imperial College London invites applications for a Research Associate position. The primary focus will be on the novel Atom Interferometer Observatory and Network (AION) project (website, paper), where the Group has major responsibilities in building a new Ultracold Strontium Laboratory at Imperial and to perform essential research and development of the underlying Strontium atom interferometry.
Duties and responsibilities
The AION project was recently funded by EPSRC and STFC via the Quantum Technology for Fundamental Science (QTFP) call. This programme will deliver deployable quantum technology to study dark matter and gravitational waves by constructing 10m and 100m scale instruments, paving the way for a km-scale facility, and eventually a space based detector.
The institutions involved in AION are: University of Birmingham, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London (lead), Kings College London, University of Liverpool, University of Oxford, and STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. In addition, the project is in partnership with UK National Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Timing, Birmingham, UK, the MAGIS Collaboration, US and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, US.
The post will be based primarily in London, with work also taking place at other AION sites in the UK and MAGIS in the US. The London experiment will focus on the challenge of minimising atom shot noise, through the fast creation of large, cold, squeezed samples of Sr. The proposed experimental methods include: (1) cavity-based quantum nondemolition measurement to create squeezed states, using high, near-uniform atom-cavity cooperativity to approach the limits of unitary squeezing; (2) the continuous preparation of large samples of ultracold Sr, replacing time-separated cooling stages by stages separated in space or by internal atomic state.
You will build on the High Energy Physics and Quantum Optics and Laser Science Groups’ significant existing experience as well as the diverse expertise in the AION collaboration to help produce independent and original research, to build the new Ultra-Cold Strontium Laboratory, and to support the work and management of the AION work package hosted at Imperial.