Quantum Sensor Developed by LSU Researcher Breaks New Limits
March 16, 2010(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Louisiana State University have invented an optical sensor that surpasses a quantum limit to sensitivity previously believed to be unbeatable. The breakthrough has a broad array of applications, from gravity wave observatories seeking to observe distant and bizarre astrophysical phenomena, to optical gyroscopes used in commercial navigation.
Optical interferometers are some of the most sensitive devices on Earth, and they have a 100 year long history at the forefront of breakthroughs in science - from turn of the century experiments measuring the speed of light and paving the way for Einstein’s theory of relativity - to current day laser interferometer antennas that scan the skies for evidence of gravity waves emitted from colliding black holes.
Practical applications are navigational gyroscopes found in jet planes and magnetic field sensors used in oil drills. It was previously thought that the there was an ultimate limit on the sensitivity of such devices imposed by the laws of quantum physics.
“We uncovered this ground breaking new sensor concept in an analysis of optical sensors that exploit some of the stranger predictions of quantum mechanics in their workings,” said Jonathon P. Dowling, Hearne Research Chair in Theoretical Physics at LSU and lead researcher on the project.
The LSU team, led by Dowling, has now demonstrated conclusively that this limit can be broken in a work that appeared recently in Physical Review Letters. This work exploits quantum properties of light to design of the most sensitive optical interferometer ever devised.
“This project began as a research project for one of our physics and astronomy undergraduate students, Gretchen Raterman,” said Dowling. “The work quickly took on a life of its own with different contributions from Ms. Raterman and other members of our LSU team. The end result - the beating of this thought to be unbeatable limit - came as quite a surprise and it illustrates how basic scientific research at LSU can lead to potentially practical advances in technology in unexpected ways.”
More information: Quantum Metrology with Two-Mode Squeezed Vacuum: Parity Detection Beats the Heisenberg Limit, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 103602 (2010). DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.103602
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Mar 16, 2010
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Mar 16, 2010
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Mar 16, 2010
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Mar 17, 2010
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Surely there is more room for practical advances in science other than at LSU. More importantly, a presentation without any sort of data or explanation whatsoever is not what we call 'science'.
Mar 17, 2010
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Surely there is more room for practical advances in science other than at LSU. More importantly, a presentation without any sort of data or explanation whatsoever is not what we call 'science'.
Mar 17, 2010
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100-year-long history
current-day laser interferometer antennas
thought-to-be unbeatable limit
Mar 17, 2010
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Mar 17, 2010
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Mar 17, 2010
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Mar 17, 2010
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"that gave both he and I a victory"
correction:
"that gave both him and me a victory".
Sorry, that particular grammatical error is a pet peeve of mine. :)
Mar 17, 2010
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As far as breaking the Heisenberg limit goes, they show that the traditional understanding of the Heisenberg uncertainty limit applied to the phase of photons from a beam-splitter is incorrect. This "wrong" version of the limit ignores the information in the total number of photons. (Hmmm. Maybe a better way to state it is that the "conventional" understanding looks at the data from pairs of photons. This method looks at the information from all of the photons in an entangled state that pass through the interferometer.)
Read the paper for further details. It really is an exciting result, but it will take years to develop practical interferometers that can take advantage of the new limit.
Mar 17, 2010
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It's easier to understand than the research quoted. :(
Mar 17, 2010
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Mar 18, 2010
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Excuse me? Forgive my myopia! :)
I 'see' no connection between your comment and the article here, as well as the original research paper referenced here.
With all due respect, enlighten me.
I felt encourage with all the humor here to devote
an honest attempt to understand the applied mathematics the authors referenced in their work.
It is not the first time applied mathematics was found to be interpreting physical phenomenon in error, despite peer-review.
Mar 20, 2010
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When they break the limits to be again broken by some other guy, then whole Q-Mechanics is Broken which implies there is no Q-mechanics, Q-Mechanics is just a property of matter at certain physical conditions, and it shouldnt be taken as final theory....after all its not a theory, which is being broken, laws of Physics can be Designed for eg an electron can be added a property of Anti Gravity apart from its existing properties....
Mar 21, 2010
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LOL