Clément Lacroûte

Biography

A CNRS researcher since 2013, Clément Lacroûte is a member of the Oscillators, Clocks, Metrology and Systems team in the Time-Frequency Department at the FEMTO-ST Institute in Besançon. D. in light-matter interaction, time-frequency metrology and atomic clocks. His work focuses on the production and characterization of ultra-stable optical references, and in particular on the development of a Ytterbium ion atomic clock. These themes lie at the crossroads of optics, electronics, atomic physics and signal processing. The combination of metrological rigor and laser-cooled atoms is interesting both for fundamental physics and for its technical applications, of which satellite geo-positioning is the best known.

Conference: Does the beginning of atomic time mark the end of human time?

We pay little attention to the many clocks around us. Yet an impressive number of devices display the time that punctuates our daily lives: cell phones, computers, radio and TV signals, GPS, microwave ovens and clock radios. Behind these seemingly neutral figures that give us all the same time lies a formidable effort combining technical and theoretical know-how to disseminate atomic clock time. Since 1967, the second has been linked to the Caesium atom. That same year, in his book La Société du Spectacle (The Society of the Spectacle), Guy Debord defined spectacular time as that “whose segments must prove their sole quantitative equality on the chronometer”. What links can be woven between atomic time and spectacular time?