This simple process enables the detector to home in on any desired frequency at all, with no loss in the nanoscale spatial resolution of the sensor. This converts the frequency of the field being studied into a different frequency-the difference between the original frequency and that of the added signal-which is tuned to the specific frequency that the detector is most sensitive to. The new system the team devised, which they call a quantum mixer, injects a second frequency into the detector using a beam of microwaves. But many other phenomena of interest span a much broader frequency range than today's quantum sensors can detect. For example, physicists use them to investigate exotic states of matter, including so-called time crystals and topological phases, while other researchers use them to characterize practical devices such as experimental quantum memory or computation devices. These can take the form of neutral atoms, trapped ions, and solid-state spins, and research using such sensors has grown rapidly. Quantum sensors can take many forms they're essentially systems in which some particles are in such a delicately balanced state that they are affected by even tiny variations in the fields they are exposed to. The new method, for which the team has already applied for patent protection, is described in the journal Physical Review X, in a paper by graduate student Guoqing Wang, professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics Paola Cappellaro, and four others at MIT and Lincoln Laboratory.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |