In quantum sensing, atomic-scale quantum systems are used to measure electromagnetic fields, as well as properties like rotation, acceleration, and distance, far more precisely than classical sensors can. The technology could enable devices that image the brain with unprecedented detail, for example, or air traffic control systems with precise positioning accuracy.    

The U.S. National Science Foundation’s Physics Frontiers Centers program renewed a grant to the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms (CUA) to fund exploring, understanding, and harnessing mysterious phenomena at the frontiers of physics. The CUA, which works to enable greater control and programmability of quantum-entangled systems of low-temperature atoms and molecules, will conduct experiments involving...

In principle, quantum-based devices such as computers and sensors could vastly outperform conventional digital technologies for carrying out many complex tasks. But developing such devices in practice has been a challenging problem despite great investments by tech companies as well as academic and government labs. Today’s biggest quantum computers still only have a few hundred...

If Changhao Li were to trace the origins of his love of nature, he would point to the time when he was 9, observing the night sky from his childhood home in the small town of Jinan, China. “At that moment I felt that nature is so beautiful, I just wanted to go outside the...

Cappellaro Group member Changhao Li wins 2022 Peake Prize.

Distributed machine learning has attracted great attention as a method to deal with large-scale or distributed data. In distributed machine learning, the required communication between different machines quantified by communication complexity is one of the critical factors in determining an algorithm’s performance. Therefore, developing communication-efficient algorithms is important for distributed machine learning applications when the...

Quantum sensing is essential in tasks ranging from characterization of quantum devices, to exploration of magnetism in condensed matter, to imaging of microwave structures. Current quantum sensors have achieved excellent performance combining high sensitivity with spatial resolution. However, the frequency range of the signal fields that can be measured is still limited to either a...

A novel approach to testing for the presence of the virus that causes Covid-19 may lead to tests that are faster, less expensive, and potentially less prone to erroneous results than existing detection methods. Though the work, based on quantum effects, is still theoretical, these detectors could potentially be adapted to detect virtually any virus,...

Cappellaro Group member Yi-Xiang Lu wins 2020-2021 De Favero Thesis Prize.

Quantum scientist Paola Cappellaro works to ensure students are at their “best state, and moving towards one better,” according to student nominators. Cappellaro effectively navigates the balance between attending closely to students’ needs while also giving them space to explore. Paola Cappellaro is a Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering. She leads the Quantum Engineering...

System “recruits” defects that usually cause disruptions, using them to instead carry out quantum operations.

David L. Chandler | MIT News Office February 18, 2020 Labs around the world are racing to develop new computing and sensing devices that operate on the principles of quantum mechanics and could offer dramatic advantages over their classical counterparts. But these technologies still face several challenges, and one of the most significant is how...

MIT researchers find a new way to make nanoscale measurements of fields, including information about their direction.

PhD student David Layden in the Quantum Engineering Group has a new approach to spatial noise filtering that boosts development of ultra-sensitive quantum sensors. New research from MIT’s interdisciplinary Quantum Engineering Group (QEG) is addressing one of the fundamental challenges facing these quantum sensor systems: removing environmental noise from the signal being measured. “The usual...

Advance holds promise for “wiring” of quantum computers and other systems, and opens new avenues for understanding basic workings of the quantum realm.

See the video: How modern science is proving Einstein wrong (and right)

Technique could provide unique views of single molecules that conventional methods can’t match.

A research collaboration including CUA investigators at Harvard.