A new protocol for estimating unknown optical processes, called unitary operations, with precision enhanced by the unique properties of quantum mechanics has been demonstrated by scientists and engineers from the University of Bristol, UK, and the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore.
The work, published in the June issue of Optica, could lead to both dramatically better sensors for medical research and new approaches to benchmark the performance of ultra-powerful quantum computers.
History tells us the ability to measure parameters and sense phenomena with increasing precision leads to dramatic advances in identifying new phenomena in science and improving the performance of technology: famous examples include X-ray imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), interferometry and the scanning-tunnelling microscope.
Scientists are understanding how to engineer and control quantum systems to vastly expand the limits of measurement and sensing is growing rapidly. This area, known as quantum metrology, promises to open up radically alternative methods to the current state-of-the-art in sensing.
In this new study, the researchers re-directed the sensing power of quantum mechanics back on itself to characterise, with increased precision, unknown quantum processes that can include individual components used to build quantum computers. This ability is becoming more and more important as quantum technologies move closer to real applications.
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