Description

In a significant scientific breakthrough, an international research team from Korea's IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS) and Germany's Forschungszentrum Jülich developed a quantum sensor capable of detecting minute magnetic fields at the atomic length scale. This pioneering work, recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Nanotechnology, realizes a long-held dream of scientists: an MRI-like tool for quantum materials. The research team utilized the world-leading expertise of bottom up single-molecule fabrication from the Jülich group while conducting experiments at QNS, utilizing the Korean team’s leading-edge instrumentation and methodological know how, to develop the world's smallest quantum sensor.The diameter of an atom is a million times smaller than the thickest human hair. This makes it extremely challenging to visualize and precisely measure physical quantities like electric and magnetic fields emerging from atoms. To sense such weak fields from a single atom, the observing tool must be highly sensitive and as small as the atoms themselves. A quantum sensor is a technology that uses quantum mechanical phenomena such as the spin of an electron or the entanglement of quantum states for precise measurements. Several types of quantum sensors have been developed over the past years. While many quantum sensors are able to sense electric and magnetic fields, it was believed that atomic-scale spatial resolution cannot be mastered simultaneously.