Argonne Launches $1 Million Project to Develop Diamond Quantum Sensors for Particle Physics

Insider Brief

• Argonne National Laboratory is launching a three-year, $1 million project to develop diamond-based quantum sensors for high-precision electromagnetic field measurements in high-energy physics experiments.
• The project will use nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond to develop sensors and magnetic-field mapping systems that can operate in high-field and radiation-rich environments.
• Researchers will develop and test sensor prototypes before working toward field-ready systems that can integrate with future particle physics experiments.

Press release – A new Argonne project is bringing together experts in quantum information science and high energy physics to build diamond-based quantum sensors capable of measuring electromagnetic fields with unprecedented precision.

Understanding how the universe’s smallest building blocks interact requires a precise understanding of how electromagnetic forces affect matter.

Whether scientists are measuring the momentum of bits of matter emerging from a particle collision or tracking subtle changes in the motion of particles stored in a magnetic ring, they need to understand the surrounding electromagnetic fields and how those fields change over space and time. Even tiny uncertainties can limit the precision of an experiment.