Quantum Researchers Find NV Centre Technology Ready For Commercial Use
Cosylab, a provider of control systems engineering solutions for science and deep-tech industry, held a webinar “From Lab to Fab: Quantum Sensing and NV Control” that investigated the challenges of transitioning quantum sensing from laboratory prototypes to real-world systems, and how to meet them.
One of the main questions addressed in the webinar was: “Why do so many promising quantum sensing technologies fail to progress once leaving the laboratory to be scaled up to production-ready systems?“
The answer, provided by the speakers, has nothing to do with the underlying science of these technologies — instead, it involves engineering.
Dr Jaka Pribošek, leader of the Applied Quantum Sensing Team at Silicon Austria Labs (SAL), opened with a keynote talk describing how nitrogen vacancy (NV) centres in diamonds have enabled a new generation of quantum sensors, including quantum navigation-grade gyroscopes and ultra-sensitive magnetometers.
When attendees were asked what they considered their most significant obstacle to scaling their experiments, “unreliable/inconsistent results” emerged as the top concern.
"Many times, there is neither the time nor the budget to take an overall approach, and this ultimately can lead to sub-optimal systems and difficult to reproduce results,"
Dr Izidor Benedičič from the Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS) described practical aspects of reproducibility and synchronisation challenges in NV centre experiments and demonstrated methods he and his colleagues developed that have significantly increased day-to-day reliability in research environments using NV centres.
On the other hand, Prof. Dr Denis Arčon, also from IJS, participated deeply in the excellent Q&A session and drew on his extensive background in experimental design and quantum physics research to guide the conversation.
One of the highlights of the discussion was Prof. Arčon‘s comparison of today’s maturity of NV centres with NMR technology after 30 years of development, when it reached maturity and became helpful in applications such as medical imaging. As he noted:
"With nitrogen-vacancy centres we are probably there now -- the methods and knowledge are mature enough to penetrate the market fully."
If you missed the live webinar, watch the on-demand recording:
Access recording here: From Lab to Fab: Quantum Sensing & NV Control – Cosylab
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