From a sea of background noise, industrial sensors must successfully hone in on specific signals. This challenge gets even harder for designers dealing with quantum sensing devices. Now, University of Sydney researchers have solved a common problem associated with this super-sensitive tech.
In collaboration with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and Dartmouth College, the team created quantum control techniques. This development will allow next-gen ultra-sensitive sensors to identify small signals and reject unwanted background noise.
“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,” says Professor Biercuk, a chief investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems.
In order to obtain and analyze signals, measurement protocols are set in place. Over the years, these protocols have lagged behind the advancement of electronic devices. The disparity has led to a phenomenon known as “spectral leakage,” which occurs when quantum sensors return unclear results.
By using improved sensor hardware, the new control protocols have reduced spectral leakage by several orders of magnitude, according to the researchers. The team believes the new control protocols can prove useful in medical imaging applications. The defense and security sector can also benefit, aiding systems that use quantum-enhanced magnetometers.
“Our approach is relevant to nearly any quantum sensing application and can also be applied to quantum computing as it provides a way help identify sources of hardware error. This is a major advance in how we operate quantum sensors,” says Professor Biercuk.
The full details of the report can be found in the article, “Application of optimal band-limited control protocols to quantum noise sensing,” in the journal Nature Communications.
