Erwin Schrödinger Center for Quantum Science & Technology (ESQ)

Sensors are a pillar of the Internet of Things, providing the data to control all sorts of objects. Here, precision is essential, and this is where quantum technologies could make a difference. Researchers in Innsbruck and Zurich are now demonstrating how nanoparticles in tiny optical resonators can be transferred into quantum regime and used as high-precision sensors.

Advances in quantum physics offer new opportunities to significantly improve the precision of sensors and thus enable new technologies. A team led by Oriol Romero-Isart of the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Department of Theoretical Physics at the University of Innsbruck and a team lead by Romain Quidant of ETH Zurich are now proposing a new concept for a high-precision quantum sensor. The researchers suggest that the motional fluctuations of a nanoparticle trapped in a microscopic optical resonator could be reduced significantly below the zero-point motion, by exploiting the fast unstable dynamics of the system.

For more information see:

https://iqoqi.at/en/current/news/829-microcavities-as-a-sensor-platform

Mechanical squeezing via unstable dynamics in a microcavity. Katja Kustura, Carlos Gonzalez-Ballestero, Andrés de los Ríos Sommer, Nadine Meyer, Romain Quidant, Oriol Romero-Isart. Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 143601 doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.143601

Romero-Isart-Group