Regal Group graduate student Christopher Kiehl won a poster prize for their work at the WE-Heraeus workshop on quantum sensing and metrology in Ban Honnef, Germany this August. The conference focused on advances in quantum sensing technology, such as atomic sensors, ion traps and superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDS).
Kiehl and his collaborators in Svenja Knappe's mechanical engineering group at University of Colorado Boulder are working on a sensitive, self-calibrated vector magnetometer with a hot atomic vapor cell. Kiehl describes it this way:
The idea is that in the magnetometry field there are very sensitive technologies to measure the scalar/length of a magnetic field. To not only measure the length but also the direction of a magnetic field is a much harder problem where systematic errors can accrue that are difficult to calibrate. In other words, accurate vector magnetometry is challenging. In our vector magnetometry technique we can determine and calibrate systematic effects that would normally lead to an inaccurate measurement. In addition, the technique is self-calibrating such that we can tell if we have accounted for all of the systematics affecting our sensor to within the sensitivity of our measurements.
The prize was one of three awarded at the conference. Each of the researchers received 100 Euros as part of the prize. This research is funded in part by the National Science Foundation Physics Frontier Center grant.
Congratulations to Christopher on winning!
Written by Rebecca Jacobson