A team at Imperial College London and M Squared have built a new navigation device using a quantum accelerometer. The large device is made with ships and trains in mind. (Photo via Imperial College London)
GPS is essential for navigation and since it’s a standard feature on all smartphones, getting lost is no longer a worry. Unfortunately, it’s not always reliable. All it takes is a failed satellite or a jamming attack to make GPS useless. Now, scientists believe they have found a better alternative to GPS navigation using a quantum accelerometer that could guide you without the need for GPS or other satellite technology.
A team at the Imperial College London and M Squared have built a device that uses lasers to cool atoms to extremely low temperatures and then measure the quantum wave properties of those atoms as they respond to acceleration. This process allows them to make what is called an atom interferometer. When the atoms fall, their wave properties are affected by the acceleration of the vehicle. The accelerometer is then able to measure these minute changes very accurately using an “optical ruler.”
Accelerometers are currently used in devices, like laptops and smartphones. The problem is their accuracy isn’t stable over long periods of time without an external reference. The quantum accelerometer relies on the precision and accuracy by measuring the cool atoms.
“As part of our work in commercializing cold atom quantum sensors, we developed a universal laser system for cold atom-based sensors that we have already implemented in our quantum gravimeter,” explains Dr. Joseph Thom, Quantum Technology Scientist at M Squared. “This laser is now also used in the quantum accelerometer we have built in collaboration with Imperial. Combining high power, exceptionally low noise, and frequency tunability, the laser system cools the atoms and provides the optical ruler for the acceleration measurements.”
Though it sounds promising, it isn’t exactly ready to replace the accelerometers in smartphones. The large device is currently designed with the navigation of large vehicles, like ships and trains, in mind. It has the capability to keep transportation networks going even if GPS fails. The team also believes the underlying concepts of the device can be used for further science research, like the search for dark energy and gravitational waves, which the team is also working on.
Professor Ed Hinds, from the Centre for Cold Matter at Imperial, said: "I think it's tremendously exciting that this quantum technology is now moving out of the basic science lab and being applied to problems in the wider world, all from the fantastic sensitivity and reliability that you can only get from these quantum systems."
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