Scientists have found a new way to use quantum sensors to measure atomic scale magnetic fields.
The method enables researchers to determine whether tiny, neighboring magnetic fields — 100,000 times weaker than those of a fridge magnet — arise from the same source or not. Researchers could eventually expand the method to map atom-level changes in magnetism through time and space.
Quantum sensors harness the quantum properties of atoms or atom-like systems to pick up tiny signals, like magnetic fields arising from the motion of electrons. In the future, they’re expected to be able to be placed in living cells for an inside, up-close look at how they function or to pinpoint the causes of disease.
With the ability to read out whether multiple magnet signals are correlated or independent, scientists gain access to atomic details they didn’t have before, supercharging the already powerful capabilities of quantum sensing.
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