Quantum Tuesday at the Deutsches Museum: Hands-on quantum sensor technology

As part of ‘Quantum Tuesday’ at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the team from QOOOL Sensing introduced visitors to the fascinating world of classical and quantum sensor technology.

The session began with an explanation of how sensors are part of our everyday lives, how they measure physical quantities such as temperature, light, angle of inclination or magnetic fields and strain, and what components lie behind them. Building on this, the session went on to demonstrate the unique properties of quantum sensors and why they enable measurements that are often impossible or very difficult to achieve with classical sensors. The functioning of nitrogen vacancy centres (NV centres) in diamonds was clearly explained.

During the talk, various live experiments were broadcast onto a large screen via a camera, allowing the entire audience to follow the experiments. These included, amongst other things, the fluorescence experiment using different colours, which impressively demonstrated the physical principles of fluorescence in diamonds.

Afterwards, visitors were able to ask questions themselves and try out the various demonstrators, including QOOOL Sensing Fluoro, QOOOL Sensing DIY, QOOOL Sensing Magneto and the senseBox, as well as the salt experiments and fluorescence in chestnut branches. The demonstrators were used to show how quantum sensors can measure magnetic fields and the applications that arise from this, ranging from experiments to measure the Earth’s magnetic field to biomedical applications such as measuring brain activity.