Practical Quantum Sensing to Address Real World Problems
Abstract
Quantum inertial sensors, quantum sensors that measure vector gravity, the gravity gradient tensor, acceleration, rotation and time offer unprecedented accuracy and very low in-run and bias offset drift. These properties are critical for many applications including the mapping of underground water resources, mineral exploration, underground structure detection and mapping, inertial navigation in GPS denied scenarios, satellite navigation, and planetary exploration. When fused with a high bandwidth, high dynamic range classical sensor, we get the best of both worlds.
In the Quantum Sensors Group at ANU, we develop fit for purpose sensors based on detailed quantum models, and are just now developing our first sensors in field deployable SWaP. We exploit a host of techniques from Bose-Einstein condensed sources, to large momentum transfer atomic beam splitting, to quantum squeezing and, in collaboration with Sydney company Q-CTRL, optimised composite pulses to provide immunity to environmental noise. This talk will be an introduction to these very promising sensors and a discussion of a variety of applications. I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these sensors and identify the most promising applications.
Bio
Prof John Close completed his PhD in physics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle from 1992-1995 and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen, Germany from 1995-1998. John returned to Australia and took up a position as Queen Elizabeth II Fellow at the ANU in 2000. John was promoted to Professor of Physics in 2008. He was Deputy Director of the Research School of Physics from 2012-2016, elected member of ANU council from 2012-2014, member of the ARC Panel of Experts from 2014-2016, and is currently Head of the Department of Quantum Science and Head of the Quantum Sensors Group.
John was the 2020 recipient of the Australian Defence Industry Award for Academic of the Year, and the recipient of the 2020 Australian Defence Industry Award for Excellence for his work on quantum sensors and more generally for driving collaboration between defence and academia.