ColdQuanta reaches commercial milestone

BOULDER – ColdQuanta Inc. has created “ultracold” atom technology in a commercial setting for the first time – opening the door to potential new commercial applications.

Boulder-based ColdQuanta makes Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter that exists near absolute zero, the coldest temperature scientifically possible. The technology is used in quantum computers, atomic clocks and material simulation, among other things, the company said in a statement.

Before now, Bose-Einstein condensate had only been created at universities and government research labs. ColdQuanta has developed equipment to simplify the process of creating the “ultracold” matter, according to the press statement.

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“We anticipate we will continue to contribute directly to developments in novel applications in the atomic optics field,” Rainer Kunz, chief executive, said in the press statement. “BEC research has yielded breakthroughs in atomic and optical physics.”

Such technology can be used to develop applications with navigation and sensors, Kunz has said in the past.

Bose-Einstein condensate was first created by University of Colorado scientists Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman, who received Nobel Prizes for their work. ColdQuanta was founded in 2007 to commercialize work at CU to develop streamlined devices for Bose-Einstein experiments. ColdQuanta has a licensing agreement with the university to commercialize the technology.

ColdQuanta in May 2012 said it received more than $1 million in contracts from the U.S. Navy and NASA related to the technology. Research into “ultracold” matter has taken off throughout the world since Cornell and Wieman first announced results of their work.