Quantum Sensing

Can we find a promising real-world application of quantum mechanics? This question has intrigued physicists ever since its development in the early twentieth century. Today, quantum computers and quantum cryptography are widely believed to be the most promising ones. Interestingly, however, this belief might turn out to be incomplete. In recent years a different class of applications has emerged that employs quantum mechanical systems as sensors for various physical quantities ranging from magnetic and electric fields, to time and frequency, to rotations, to temperature and pressure.

In this seminar, we will acquire an overview of this rapidly evolving field of physics. Each participant will be asked to read literature about one specific technique and deliver a presentation.

Possible topics will cover applications such as 

 * atomic clocks and GPS

 * superconducting SQUID magnetic field sensors for sensing of currents in the brain

 * protocols of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and their application in biochemistry

 * NV centers in diamond and their potential use for imaging of the magnetic fields of single molecules, hard disk write heads and neuronal currents.

After attending this seminar, students will be able to 

 * recall the state of the art in the field of quantum sensors

 * understand the language of quantum information and employ it to describe concepts, protocols and experiments

 * find, read and understand literature about problems of current research. 

 * synthesize scientific results and convey them in a scientific presentation

 * apply best practices for scientific scitation

In the course of the seminar each student individually prepares a talk on a topic of current research. Based on this talk the learning outcome is tested.