Quantum-Interconnected Optomechanical Transducers for Entanglement-Enhanced Force and Inertial Sensing

Award ID: 2040575

The NSF Convergence Accelerator supports use-inspired, team-based, multidisciplinary efforts that address challenges of national importance and will produce deliverables of value to society in the near future. Sensors are a pivotal component in a wide range of applications such as positioning, navigation, imaging, and timing. Quantum sensors are of technological interest due to their enhanced sensing performance. This project will create a quantum-sensing architecture that interconnects a variety of sensors with optical interfaces to form a network that has inherently quantum characteristics (of entanglement). Such a quantum sensor network will have benefits in a range of applications, including atomic force microscopy, inertial navigation, space communications, and healthcare imaging. This project will advance knowledge by showing how to harness entanglement interconnects and enhance the sensitivity, accuracy, and stability of real-world force, inertial, RF, and other types of sensors. Use-inspired applications will include AFM for quantum materials studies, positioning and navigation in GPS-denied environments, and precise beam pointing for space-based laser communications. By harnessing tools in quantum optomechanics such as a squeezing-enhanced interferometry and radiation pressure cooling, the team will deliver the first entanglement-interconnected optomechanical AFMs and inertial sensor arrays and then scale up arrays for multi-order-of-magnitude performance improvements over existing technologies. This project will advance the training of the US quantum workforce by engaging scientists and engineers at multiple education and career stages in university, industry, and national laboratory environments. Participants will gain theoretical background knowledge of quantum information science (QIS) and experimental skills for quantum optics, integrated photonics, optomechanics, and quantum-system engineering in a convergent, team-science setting. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Pradeep Fulay