Quantum Sensors
Truly discovering what lies beneath the ground, in the sky and the human body and brain with quantum sensing, imaging and timing
Collaboration between engineers, physicists and data scientists
The UK Quantum Technology Research Hub in Sensing, Imaging and Timing (QuSIT) is a collaboration of expert physicists, engineers and data scientists from the Universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Bristol, Durham, Heriot-Watt, Imperial, Nottingham, Southampton and Strathclyde, as well as the British Geological Survey and the National Physical Laboratory.
Real-world technologies
QuSIT focusses on overcoming the main research barriers to scale up and manufacture quantum sensing, imaging and timing devices to help address challenges in healthcare, infrastructure, transportation, and security, enabling a safer, healthier, and more sustainable society.
Impact on everyday lives
Examples of this new technology include cameras to detect gas leaks and hidden objects, quantum brain scanners to enhance investigation of brain health disorders and epilepsy, and quantum sensing of gravity and magnetic fields to help increase resilience and capacity of critical infrastructure.
What are we doing in the UK?
The UK National
Quantum Strategy
The UK government has a well developed National Quantum Strategy. One of five quantum missions announced in December 2023 is to ensure that by 2035, there will be accessible, UK-based quantum computers capable of running 1 trillion operations and supporting applications that provide benefits well in excess of classical supercomputers across key sectors of the economy.
The UK Quantum Technology Research Hub in Sensors, Imaging and Timing
The UK Quantum Technology Research Hub in Sensing, Imaging and Timing (QuSIT) focusses on overcoming the main research barriers to scaleup and manufacture quantum sensing devices to help address real-world challenges
The UK National Quantum Technologies Programme
Launched in 2014, and backed by the Government’s £2.5bn National Quantum Strategy, the NQTP builds on a decade of experience to enable the UK to be a leading quantum-enabled economy by 2033, with a world leading sector, where quantum technologies are an integral part of the UK’s future digital infrastructure and advanced manufacturing base, driving growth and helping to build a thriving and resilient economy and society.
Frequently asked questions
Confused about what quantum sensing and timing is all about?
These FAQs might answer your question!
Quantum can be difficult to understand as the traditional assumptions of Newtonian physics do not apply. It relies on the behaviour of microscopic particles, which can be in two places at once and as such become very sensitive to the differences between these places.
Despite the complex nature of quantum, the end-user applications exist in our everyday lives, from trains, to roads and even to measuring brain activity to diagnose and further research into brain conditions.
Quantum sensors will enable resilient and robust technology, and act as the foundation of future innovative quantum technologies.
We work with a huge range of companies: from engineering and construction, defence, communications and component manufacturers, and many more! Some examples of our partners include RSK, BAE Systems, BP, BT and National Rail.
Quantum sensor and clocks technology will underpin our critical national services - which is our key services, such as our energy infrastructure and communications network - to provide a solid resilience fit for the future. It is almost like building a sturdier foundation to a house, to ensure stability for the next few hundred years!
Quantum timing is like the unseen hero, silently ticking away but holding our communications and digital world together! It is incredible important that timing is accurate across not only the country, but the entire world, to make sure events happen at the right time, and that our systems are synchronised. Inaccurate timestamps will have a knock-on effect in healthcare, navigation and many other sectors, causing delays and an inability to forward-plan with accurate data.
When cooled to temperatures near absolute zero, atoms unveil their wave-like nature and quantum mechanical laws replace those of classical mechanics. By using finely controlled lasers and magnetic fields, scientists are able to cool small ensembles of atoms down to the lowest temperatures in the universe – just a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero – and thus to access the realm of fully quantum mechanical motion. All the essential parameters of the atomic samples, including the motion, the shape, and the forces between the atoms can be efficiently controlled, making these ideal systems for discovering new quantum behaviour and new states of matter.
Researchers are using cold atom technology to exploit the exceptional properties of quantum matter to realise real-world applications like ultra-precise atomic clocks and interferometers and ‘gravitational cameras’ which can unveil the underworld – from modern urban infrastructure to the buried secrets of Stonehenge.