Southampton, UK, 23rd April 2025 - Hold on to your life jackets! Aquark Technologies, a proud member of the NATO DIANA Accelerator Programme, has announced the details of its latest trial. But here’s the twist - in an unexpected collaboration, the autonomous submersible vehicle National Oceanography Centre (NOC) Autosub Long Range (ALR), affectionately known as Boaty McBoatface, made a splash in the world of quantum technology, being the vessel of choice for Aquark to send its AQuest system into the depths.

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Southampton-based startup Aquark Technologies, which specialises in reducing the size, weight, power consumption, and cost of quantum-enabling technologies, successfully and continuously trapped cold atoms in dynamic conditions underwater for the first time. The Company trialled its ultra-cold atom source in NOC’s massive indoor test tank. 

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The result? A boatload (pun intended) of data was collected about the system’s behaviour and robustness in these challenging conditions, including performance metrics at different temperatures and pressures. The insights gathered will support improvements to the reliability of Aquark’s cold atom systems, which could be used in applications like advanced navigation, medical diagnostics, and environmental monitoring.

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What makes the trial remarkable is that laser cooling atoms is only possible when a system is completely isolated from most external disturbances. This means forming ultra-cold atom clouds poses a big engineering challenge, even on dry land. Aquark Technologies and NOC overcame these challenges with ease.

This extreme sensitivity makes cold atoms the perfect choice for quantum sensing applications since noise can be selectively reintroduced, allowing for an unprecedented level of precision for measurement, surpassing the limitations of classical sensors. 

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Andrei Dragomir, Co-Founder & CEO, Aquark Technologies, said: “Seeing our platform work alongside NOC's Autosub – known as Boaty McBoatface - was a real win for both science and fun. It was fantastic to demonstrate the compatibility of our platform with the ALR’s pressure vessel, and the resounding success of this trial has opened new doors for research enabled by quantum technologies. 

 

In the future, we may be able to measure the density of minerals under the sea floor using gravity measurements or perform high-sensitivity magnetic field measurements, giving scientists new ways of seeing things that were previously hidden. We may even uncover some hidden treasures!”

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Villius Atkočius, Quantum Systems Engineer, Aquark Technologies, said: "This is the first time a cold atom trap has been tested underwater, and we have achieved it with our unique Super Molasses Trap (SMT). The underwater world is less understood than space, so the potential for this is huge. Gravity sensing platforms like Aquark’s SMT are more reliable than traditional magnetic field sensing when working for long periods underwater or near the polar regions. With this trial with the NOC, we have shown the platform works, and we expect real-life applications to follow quickly after.”  

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Dr Alex Phillips, Head of Marine Autonomous and Robotics Systems at NOC said, “Quantum sensing has the potential to make a substantial contribution to underwater navigation and seabed imaging. These initial tests illustrate that quantum technologies are now close to making the transition out of the laboratory and into underwater vehicles like Autosub Long Range”.

 

-ENDS-

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NOTE EDITORS

Aquark’s system successfully produced cold atom ensembles, which involves cooling roughly one million Rubidium atoms at less than 50 microkelvin above absolute zero, or around -273 degrees Celsius.

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About Aquark Technologies 

Aquark Technologies is a pioneering company dedicated to advancing the forefront of cold matter quantum technology, making quantum advancements more accessible and scalable. With expertise in vacuum technology, microfabrication, and laser-cooling, Aquark is improving the size, weight, power, and cost of quantum devices. The UK-based company is committed to developing technology for the betterment of society with a vision to be the provider of a compact and robust cold matter core that will enable the next generation of quantum sensing and computing.

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About the National Oceanography Centre (NOC)

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is one of the world’s top ocean research institutions. NOC’s scientists work around the globe, uncovering links between the ocean, climate change and biodiversity loss, to help every living thing on our planet flourish.

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NOC solves challenging multidisciplinary, large scale, long-term marine science problems to underpin international and UK public policy, business and societal outcomes.

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NOC is a company limited by guarantee set up under the law of England and Wales (11444362) and registered as a charity (1185265).