Ph.D. student position in experimental quantum technology: Relativistic geodesy with optical atomic clocks and the ISS

id="offer-description" class="ecl-u-type-heading-2 ecl-u-mt-none ecl-u-mb-l">Offer Description A German consortium aims for performing foundational experiments on relativistic geodesy using optical lattice clocks and ground-to-satellite time transfer links to the ISS. The project task consists in comparing a strontium lattice clock at PTB Braunschweig with a strontium lattice clock at Geodätische Fundamentalstation Wettzell (GOW, Wettzell, Germany). The comparison will be performed during the mission ACES on the ISS. This mission was launched in 2025 and is operational. High-performance optical free-space ground-space-ground, microwave ground-space-ground, and fiber links will be used for this purpose. In particular, free-space ground-space-ground optical links will be implemented betweeen the laser ranging station in GOW and the ACES payload and, simultaneously, between ACES and a similar ranging station in Potsdam. These two-way pulsed laser time-transfer links will be unique worldwide, as there are currently no other ground stations providing the necessary infrastructure capable of high accuracy. We aim for achieving comparisons of remote clocks with a fractional uncertainty of 1E-17 in time interval measurements. This position refers to improving an existant optical lattice clock, called "SOC2", then transferring it to Wettzell, operating it there, performing measurement campaings during the ACES mission, analyzing and interpreting data. The SOC2 clock is a modular, trans