Quantum sensing is a new technology with some commercial rollouts already, but it will be up to a decade before full-scale adoption happens across the healthcare, industrial monitoring and navigation fields.
That’s the opinion of Ankit Singh, a researcher based in Mumbai, India, writing in Azo Sensors.
Singh notes that quantum sensing is further along than quantum computing. However, obstacles remain. Including workforce shortages, and limited availability of specialized components like compact lasers and quantum-grade diamonds. The workforce challenge is tough because design and manufacture of quantum sensors require experts in physics, materials science, optics and precision engineering.
Cost is a sticking point, since many quantum sensors can cost thousands of dollars apiece. Also, regulators and industry groups need to establish common benchmarks, standards, to allow buyers to compare competing products accurately.
Commercial availability of quantum sensors is spotty but includes atomic clocks, MRI systems and some magnetometers. This proves that the underlying science of quantum sensors works outside a lab settings, Singh said. In the next several years, gravimeters and electrometers are likely to follow with the next several years.
Atom-interferometry gravimeters have gained some traction in oil, gas and mineral exploration because they don’t require as much recalibration as traditional optomechanical instruments. Magnetometers of the vapor cell version, now costing a few thousand dollars, are replacing older fluxgate designs for use in communications, navigation and geological surveys.
Inertial navigation sensors, including gyrosco;pes and acceleromoters are still under development. “Thermal beam and cold atom technologies present varying trade-offs between precision and complexity, but neither has achieved the compact and durable design necessary for widespread integration into vehicles or aircraft,” Singh said.
Rydberg electrometers interest commercial buyers but production volumes remain modest.
Quantum sensors offer better stability that classical sensors over long periods of use. They measure fixed constants of nature like magnetic fields, gravity, rotation and time using atomic properties such as superposition and entanglement. They can detect signals that traditional electronics cannot see. In one example, Rydberg atom sensors can sense electric fields across a large frequency range from direct current to hundreds of gigahertz, which no conventional antenna can do in a single compact device, Singh noted.
Optical magnetometers in quantum sensing can now measure magnetic fields that are ten billion times weaker than the Earth’s magnetic field. Singh concluded that government investment and early industry partnerships will determine how long before full-scale adoption occurs.