March 2025 - "Researchers in France have devised a new technique in quantum sensing that uses trapped ultracold atoms to detect acceleration and rotation. They then combined their quantum sensor with a conventional, classical inertial sensor to create a hybrid system that was used to measure acceleration due to Earth’s gravity and the rotational frequency of the Earth. With further development, the hybrid sensor could be deployed in the field for applications such as inertial navigation and geophysical mapping."
See the article in PhysicsWorld : "Magnetically launched atoms sense motion" in https://physicsworld.com/a/magnetically-launched-atoms-sense-motion/
The reserach is described in "Quantum sensing of acceleration and rotation by interfering magnetically launched atoms" (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq4498)
ONERA's quantum computing axis, talks about the needs of aerospace research in terms of high-performance computing... needs that are costly in terms of computing time and energy! In the interview, the expert sees quantum computing as a way of reducing these costs. He describes the collaboration at work with the start-up Quandela, via its Perceval platform, with its sights set on fluid mechanics modeling. While the decisive advantage has yet to be demonstrated, this project enables ONERA to test photonic qubit technology, and provides Quandela with a use case with considerable potential spin-offs.
Alix Valenti, international defence and security expert, brought together three quantum technology specialists on the Euronaval Talks stage on Monday 6 June 2024. The principles and challenges of this technological breakthrough for the naval sector were clearly explained. Replay on youtube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy0zSWxoCLchCaWex8_IVzBugsAUBz44Z&si=nwiodtt5kxOYS12X
With Sylvain Schwartz (ONERA, Head of QTech lab), Cédric Tavernier (Hensoldt, cryptography expert), Myriam Nouvel (Quantum Project Leader Thales)
France Quantum 2023 Conference - June 13, 2023: Patrick Aufort, Director of the French Defense Innovation Agency, and Sylvain Schwartz, Head of the QTech laboratory, discuss quantum technologies for defense and space. Video. Vidéo
Quandela, a start-up specializing in photonic quantum computing, has teamed up with ONERA and MBDA to develop models for simulating phenomena in aircraft combustion chambers. The goal is to reduce computing time by using Quantum Machine Learning. www.quandela.com/newsroom
In the early 2000s, Alain Aspect encouraged the development of research on cold atoms at ONERA, which led to the development of the GIRAFE gravimeter, the first quantum sensor that can be used to make absolute, very high-precision measurements of the gravity field from a ship or an aircraft.
The inauguration seminar of the QTech laboratory took place on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, in the Poincaré amphitheatre at the École polytechnique, in the presence of Bruno Sainjon, Chairman and CEO of ONERA, and Jacques Marilossian, Member of the French Parliament. About 100 people - scientists, industrialists and institutions - attended the various talks and presentations.
Sylvain Schwartz, quantum physicist at ONERA and director of the QTECH laboratory, discusses in a podcast the promises of the second quantum revolution (underway) and evokes the path already taken at ONERA.
For more information, you can contact the laboratory manager.
