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Researchers Improve Background Noise Filtering for Quantum Sensors

Accepted submission by takyon at 2017-12-20 03:32:52
Science

New Quantum Trick Blocks Background Noise in Sensing Devices [globalspec.com]

A team of researchers from the University of Sydney has managed to solve a common problem in quantum sensing devices that are used in biomedical imaging and defense applications.

[...] A team led by Professor Micheal J. Biercuk from the University of Sydney, in collaboration with Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, has developed quantum control techniques that enable a new generation of ultra-sensitive sensors that can identify tiny signals while rejecting background noise to theoretical limits. "By applying the right quantum controls to a qubit-based sensor, we can adjust its response in a way that guarantees the best possible exclusion of the background clutter - that is, the other voices in the room," said Professor Biercuk, a chief investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems.

The devices themselves have improved, but the measurement protocols that are used to capture and interpret signals have lagged behind. Because of this, quantum sensors often have fuzzy results, which complicated interpretation of the data through a phenomenon called, "spectral leakage". This is kind of like being distracted by the wrong voices in the room. The University of Sydney research demonstrates control protocols that help take advantage of improved sensor hardware. The experiments used trapped atomic ions, and they have reduced spectral leakage by many orders of magnitude over the conventional methods. According to Professor Biercuk, in certain circumstances, these new methods are up to 100 million times better at excluding the background.

Application of optimal band-limited control protocols to quantum noise sensing [nature.com] (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02298-2) (DX [doi.org])


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