August 7, 2024 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlightedthe following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread by Argonne National Laboratory When it comes to materials for quantum sensors, diamond is the best game in town, says Cornell University professor Gregory Fuchs. Now he and a team of scientists have upped diamond's game by generating exquisite imagery of diamond undergoing microscopic vibrations.
The team, comprising researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, Cornell and Purdue University, achieved a two-fold advance for quantum information science .
First, pulsing the diamond with sound waves , they took X-ray images of the diamond's vibrations and measured how much the atoms compressed or expanded depending on the wave frequency. Second, they connected that atomic strain with another atomic property, spin—a special feature of all atomic matter—and defined the mathematical relationship between the two. The findings are key for quantum sensing, which draws on special features of atoms to make measurements that are significantly more precise than we're capable of today.
Quantum sensors are expected to see widespread use in medicine, navigation and cosmology in the coming decades. Scientists use spin to encode quantum information. By determining how spin responds to strain in diamo.