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Quantum Sensors and Sensing Technology

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2024) | Viewed by 4232

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ettore Bernardi

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Guest Editor

Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Strada delle Cacce 91, 10135 Turin, Italy
Interests: quantum sensing; NV centers; optical-detected magnetic resonance; quantum thermodynamics; bio-sensing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Quantum sensing is based on taking advantage of quantum features to increase the sensitivity of the measurement of a physical quantity. The quantum features exploited are usually quantum superposition, entanglement, and quantum correlations. The physical quantities measured are electric and magnetic field, temperature, and pressure. In addition, imaging resolution can be enhanced by taking advantage of quantum correlations.

Quantum sensing has rapidly developed in the last few years in the broader context of emerging quantum technologies. Quantum effects, such as entanglement, move from being only theoretical or reserved, to specific challenging experiments intended to be the base of recent technological improvements.

This Special Issue aims to gather research and review articles on recent advances, technologies, solutions, applications, and new challenges in the field of quantum sensing.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

Quantum sensing with photons.
Quantum sensing with nitrogen-vacancy centers.
Quantum sensing with flux quits.
Quantum sensing with trapped ions.
Portable sensors.

Dr. Ettore Bernardi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

lab-on-a-chip
quantum superposition
entanglement
quantum correlation
Heisenberg limit
sub-shot noise

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 20932 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Microcontroller-Optimized Measurement Electronics for Coherent Control Applications of NV Centers

by Dennis Stiegekötter, Jens Pogorzelski, Ludwig Horsthemke, Frederik Hoffmann, Markus Gregor and Peter Glösekötter

Sensors 2024, 24(10), 3138; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24103138 - 15 May 2024

Viewed by 89

Abstract

Long coherence times at room temperature make the NV center a promising candidate for quantum sensors and quantum computers. The necessary coherent control of the electron spin triplet in the ground state requires microwave

π

pulses in the nanosecond range, obtained from the [...] Read more.

π

pulses in the nanosecond range, obtained from the Rabi oscillation of the m_S spin states of the magnetic resonances of the NV centers. Laboratory equipment has a high temporal resolution for these measurements but is expensive and, therefore, uninteresting for fields such as education. In this work, we present measurement electronics for NV centers that are optimized for microcontrollers. It is shown that the Rabi frequency is linear to the output of the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and is used to adapt the time length

π

of the electron spin flip, to the limited pulse width resolution of the microcontroller. This was achieved by breaking down the most relevant functions of conventional laboratory devices and replacing them with commercially available integrated components. The result is a cost-effective handheld setup for coherent control applications of NV centers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quantum Sensors and Sensing Technology)

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13 pages, 5145 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Excited-State Lifetime of NV Centers for All-Optical Magnetic Field Sensing

by Ludwig Horsthemke, Jens Pogorzelski, Dennis Stiegekötter, Frederik Hoffmann, Lutz Langguth, Robert Staacke, Christian Laube, Wolfgang Knolle, Markus Gregor and Peter Glösekötter

Sensors 2024, 24(7), 2093; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24072093 - 25 Mar 2024

Viewed by 712

Abstract

We investigate the magnetic field-dependent fluorescence lifetime of microdiamond powder containing a high density of nitrogen-vacancy centers. This constitutes a non-intensity quantity for robust, all-optical magnetic field sensing. We propose a fiber-based setup in which the excitation intensity is modulated in a frequency [...] Read more.

100 MHz

. The change in magnitude and phase of the fluorescence relative to

B = 0

is recorded where the phase shows a maximum in magnetic contrast of

{5.8}^{\circ}

13 MHz

. A lock-in amplifier-based setup utilizing the change in phase at this frequency shows a 100 times higher immunity to fluctuations in the optical path compared to the intensity-based approach. A noise floor of

20 μ T / \sqrt{Hz}

and a shot-noise-limited sensitivity of

0.95 μ T / \sqrt{Hz}

were determined. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quantum Sensors and Sensing Technology)

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11 pages, 1755 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Limitations of Bulk Diamond Sensors for Single-Cell Thermometry

by Andrea Alessio, Ettore Bernardi, Ekaterina Moreva, Ivo Pietro Degiovanni, Marco Genovese and Marco Truccato

Sensors 2024, 24(1), 200; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24010200 - 29 Dec 2023

Viewed by 854

Abstract

The present paper reports on a Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis of the experimental situation corresponding to the measurement of the temperature variation in a single cell plated on bulk diamond by means of optical techniques. Starting from previous experimental results, we have determined—in a uniform power density approximation and under steady-state conditions—the total heat power that has to be dissipated by a single cell plated on a glassy substrate in order to induce the typical maximum temperature increase

Δ T_{g l a s s} = 1

K. While keeping all of the other parameters constant, the glassy substrate has been replaced by a diamond plate. The FEM analysis shows that, in this case, the maximum temperature increase is expected at the diamond/cell interface and is as small as

Δ T_{d i a m} = 4.6 \times 10^{- 4}

K. We have also calculated the typical decay time in the transient scenario, which resulted in

τ \approx

250

μ

s. By comparing these results with the state-of-the-art sensitivity values, we prove that the potential advantages of a longer coherence time, better spectral properties, and the use of special field alignments do not justify the use of diamond substrates in their bulk form. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quantum Sensors and Sensing Technology)

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8 pages, 751 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Attosecond-Level Delay Sensing via Temporal Quantum Erasing

by Fabrizio Sgobba, Andrea Andrisani, Stefano Dello Russo, Mario Siciliani de Cumis and Luigi Santamaria Amato

Sensors 2023, 23(18), 7758; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23187758 - 8 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 653

Abstract

Traditional Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interferometry, insensitive to photons phase mismatch, proved to be a rugged single-photon interferometric technique. By introducing a post-beam splitter polarization-dependent delay, it is possible to recover phase-sensitive fringes, obtaining a temporal quantum eraser that maintains the ruggedness of the original HOM with enhanced sensitivity. This setup shows promising applications in biological sensing and optical metrology, where high sensitivity requirements are coupled with the necessity to keep light intensity as low as possible to avoid power-induced degradation. In this paper, we developed a highly sensitive single photon birefringence-induced delay sensor operating in the telecom range (1550 nm). By using a temporal quantum eraser based on common path Hongr-Ou-Mandel Interferometry, we were able to achieve a sensitivity of 4 as for an integration time of

2 \cdot 10^{4}

s. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quantum Sensors and Sensing Technology)

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9 pages, 545 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Microwave Electrometry with Multi-Photon Coherence in Rydberg Atoms

by Zheng Yin, Qianzhu Li, Xiaoyun Song, Zhengmao Jia, Michal Parniak, Xiao Lu and Yandong Peng

Sensors 2023, 23(16), 7269; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23167269 - 19 Aug 2023

Viewed by 958

Abstract

A scheme for the measurement of a microwave (MW) electric field is proposed via multi-photon coherence in Rydberg atoms. It is based on the three-photon electromagnetically induced absorption (TPEIA) spectrum. In this process, the multi-photon produces a narrow absorption peak, which has a larger magnitude than the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) peak under the same conditions. The TPEIA peak is sensitive to MW fields, and can be used to measure MW electric field strength. We found that the magnitude of TPEIA peaks shows a linear relationship with the MW field strength. The simulation results show that the minimum detectable strength of the MW fields is about 1/10 of that based on an common EIT effect, and the probe sensitivity could be improved by about four times. Furthermore, the MW sensing based on three-photon coherence seems to be robust against the changes in the control field and shows a broad tunability, and the scheme may be useful for designing novel MW sensing devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quantum Sensors and Sensing Technology)

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12 pages, 1183 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Guesswork with Quantum Side Information Using Twisted Light

by Vishal Katariya, Narayan Bhusal and Chenglong You

Sensors 2023, 23(14), 6570; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23146570 - 21 Jul 2023

Viewed by 516

Abstract

Guesswork is an information–theoretic quantity which can be seen as an alternate security criterion to entropy. Recent work has established the theoretical framework for guesswork in the presence of quantum side information, which we extend both theoretically and experimentally. We consider guesswork when the side information consists of the BB84 states and their higher-dimensional generalizations. With this side information, we compute the guesswork for two different scenarios for each dimension. We then performed a proof-of-principle experiment using Laguerre–Gauss modes to experimentally compute the guesswork for higher-dimensional generalizations of the BB84 states. We find that our experimental results agree closely with our theoretical predictions. This work shows that guesswork can be a viable security criterion in cryptographic tasks and is experimentally accessible in a number of optical setups. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quantum Sensors and Sensing Technology)

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