Royal Holloway, along with Lancaster University, has received a share of €9.8 million from the European Commission to fund the European Microkelvin Platform (EMP), an advanced European Infrastructure providing access to ultralow temperatures near absolute zero.

The EMP will impact the key areas of quantum technology and quantum materials, through the application of sensitive measurement techniques in low noise environments.

Within this four year project the EMP will:

• provide access for external experimental researchers to the unique European low temperature infrastructure formed by the EMP consortium, a “European ultralow temperature laboratory without walls”
• promote the study of new phenomena, new materials and new devices especially in the strategically important fields of quantum materials and nano-science with direct relevance for the recently launched European Commission Quantum Technology Flagship initiative
• enhance and widen the integration of the leading ultralow temperature facilities in Europe.
• create new tools and methods to enhance the measurement capabilities of the EMP
• extend the accessible temperature range into the nanokelvin regime
• support the network of European students, scientists, and cryo-engineers working at ultralow temperatures
• disseminate the technical advances, the scientific results and the knowledge base of the EMP to maximise the impact
• commercialise the innovations of the EMP with industrial and technology partners.

The EMP is a consortium of 17 leading partners in Europe in the field of ultralow temperature physics and technology and represents an Advanced Community that evolved from the European MICROKELVIN Consortium (2009-2013).

The EMP project and EMP consortium is coordinated by Professor Dr Christian Enss of Heidelberg University, Germany.

Dr Andrew Casey, Reader, Physics at Royal Holloway, University of London, said: “We are really looking forward to welcoming new users to the London Low Temperature Laboratory at Royal Holloway through the access scheme provided by the European Microkelvin Platform.

“Combining our expertise in cooling and novel experimental techniques with other world leading European researchers in Quantum Technology and Quantum Materials promises to lead to exciting future discoveries.”

The core of the EMP consortium consists of eight access giving academic institutions, offering a varied and comprehensive portfolio of experimental expertise and facilities. These are: Aalto University (Finland), Basel University (Switzerland), CNRS Grenoble (France), Heidelberg University (Germany), IEP SAS (Slovakia), Lancaster University (United Kingdom), Royal Holloway University of London (United Kingdom), and Technische Universität Wien (Austria).

The technology partners: PTB (Germany), VTT (Finland) and Chalmers Technical University (Sweden) and the industry partners: Basel Precision Instruments GmbH (Switzerland), Bluefors Cryogenics Oy (Finland), CryoConcept (France), Leiden Cryogenics (Netherland), Magnicon GmbH (Germany), and Oxford Instruments (United Kingdom) provide a base to exploit technological innovations and the forum for the transfer of scientific knowledge to wider applications.