Quantum sensing and precision measurement is to perform a precise and sensitive measurement of a physical quantity, such as displacement, temperature, composition of atom or molecules, gravity, and electromagnetic field, et.al, based on a quantum system, quantum properties or quantum phenomena.

The high precision component analyses of atoms or molecules in gas-solid-liquid phases are the important requirement in the fields of environmental monitoring, industrial process control, coal and natural gas industry safety, national defense, medical diagnosis and aerospace. Therefore a series of laser spectroscopy techniques, such as cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS), quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), have been developed to measure the gas concentration and composition of solid elements.

Accurate measurement of electrical fields is of urgent importance to both science and industry. Rydberg atoms can provide a broadband, direct SI-traceable, compact, self-calibrating E-field probe since the RF field can cause an energy splitting of the Rydberg states of alkali atoms via the Autler-Townes effect. Therefore they are the superior quantum sensors for radio-frequency, microwave, millimeter-wave, and terahertz electric field. As a result, the Rydberg atom-based electric field sensor can be applied into many fields such as the weak microwave fields sensing, electric field metrology, THz imaging.

This research area contains the following groups:

Group on ultra-sensitive absorption spectroscopy and its applications

Laser sensing group

Lab of Rydberg Atom-Based E-Field Sensing

Lab of Precision Spectroscopy