Vincent Giordano,winner of the EFTF Award 2024

This award recognises a career spanning more than 35 years of research into frequency metrology, including the development of sapphire oscillators.

A CNRS Research Director since 2001, Vincent Giordano, a member of FEMTO-ST's Time-Frequency Department, is the winner of the prestigious EFTF Award 2024*. The award was presented to him at the EFTF 2024 conference, held from 25 to 27 June 2024 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

The EFTF Award goes to V. Giordano for more than 35 years of research into frequency metrology, in particular the development of ultra-stable cryogenic sapphire microwave oscillators. These oscillators, now developed and marketed by FEMTO-Engineering, demonstrate exceptional relative frequency stability performance in the low range of 10-15 to 10 000 s [1].

A dozen or so of these oscillators have already been delivered and installed in several national metrology institutes and government agencies in Italy, the UK, the USA and China. They are generally used as interrogation oscillators for atomic fountains, one of the major contributors to the establishment of International Atomic Time (TAI). Vincent Giordano's work, which is very much in keeping with the region's watchmaking tradition, is undoubtedly an outstanding example of the success of the FEMTO-ST Institute's transfer and development work, and a remarkable contribution to its reputation.

In addition to this core activity, V. Giordano was one of the founding members of the transverse ‘Atomic Micro-Clock’ project at FEMTO-ST. He and his colleagues also made an active contribution to the discovery of a ‘maser’ effect within the gallery-mode sapphire resonator and to the demonstration of advanced and ultra-sensitive phase noise measurement techniques.

Vincent Giordano is now continuing his work on the development of sapphire oscillators, with the aim of reducing their volume and power consumption, so as to facilitate their deployment and respond to new areas of application.

* “For long-standing contributions to the development of various frequency standards, in particular cryogenic sapphire oscillators, optically-pumped Cs beam clocks, and CPT-based atomic clocks, and phase noise metrology.”

Contact : Vincent GIORDANO