QuSeC-TAQS: Distributed Entanglement Quantum Sensing of Atmospheric and Aerosol Chemistries

该项目解决了社会面临的一个紧迫挑战--如何跟踪和应对快速变化的气候。其目标是开发和演示一个量子传感平台，该平台具有一个现场分布式传感器网络，以测量和了解大气化学和气候变量。在其最基本的层面上，纠缠量子网络能够以比单独探测的每个系统的总和更高的精度感知多个地理和局部不同的系统。因此，纠缠网络可以解释分布式节点上探测器之间的非经典关联。将传感的物理极限扩展到在热力学和量子噪声极限下测量和分析来自环境的复杂数据集，可以帮助社会福祉和公共健康。该团队汇集了量子科学与工程、电气与计算机工程、大气与地球科学、化学与生物化学以及应用数学等领域的专业知识。这一努力与美国《芯片和科学法案》的推出以及美国在量子技术方面的竞争力相一致。大气和地球科学家将利用该项目的新量子测量技术来应对关键的测量挑战：不同的测量环境，更好的光谱时间分辨率，通过分布式纠缠提高灵敏度，和/或测量瞬时物种的能力。一个重大的社会影响将是在公共卫生决策方面，其基础是以前所未有的时空分辨率对大气化学进行的新的测量和实时分析，提供关于地点的可行信息，例如通过一个全面的量子传感器纠缠网络实时实现的预防呼吸系统疾病。随着加州大学洛杉矶分校有望在2025年成为拉美裔服务机构(HSI)，这一努力培养了一支高素质、多样化的劳动力队伍，建立在包括加州桥和物理桥在内的非传统教育项目的记录基础上，为加州州立大学校园历史上代表性不足的群体创造了机会。加州大学洛杉矶分校技术学院将引入量子传感，并围绕该项目的技术进行编程，导致与大气化学和地球科学领域的行业、初创企业和非学术利益相关者合作。量子传感是一种强大的范式，包括使用非经典的光和物质状态来探测感兴趣的物种。与经典探测器相比，计量学中的非经典光状态，包括频率复用的高维纠缠光子和分布式网络中的压缩光，显示出未知的传感能力。该项目包括两个跨学科和协同的推进：1.量子使能网络化传感器系统，涉及传感器数据融合和量子传感器上的多模式学习，以及标准量子极限(SQL)和标准量子极限(SQL)遥感中的分布式纠缠辅助高维精密相位计量。与这项工作相辅相成的是关于用于分子指纹识别的量子传感器阵列的推力2，涉及超光谱双梳光谱和超出标准量子极限的稳定性，以及位于Schawlow-Townes极限的分子双梳光谱和量子受限太赫兹光谱仪。与更广泛的量子传感社区相关，该计划将展示用于量子计量的分布式纠缠，以达到低于SQL的生化灵敏度，包括双光子和多体时频纠缠源，在每个传感路径中存在噪声和通道损耗的情况下。该团队的重点将放在难以测量的化学物种上，包括N、S和C的还原和氧化形式，以及NH3、NOx和自由基化学。此外，该团队还利用并推进了实时分析和量子传感器数据融合的数学。该项目由量子传感器挑战量子系统变革性进展(QuSeC-TAQS)计划和NSF国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project addresses a pressing challenge for society - how to track and to respond to a rapidly changing climate. The goal is to develop and demonstrate a quantum sensing platform that features an in situ distributed sensor network to measure and understand atmospheric chemistries and climate variables. At its most fundamental level, an entangled quantum network is capable of sensing multiple geographically and locally distinct systems with higher precision than the summation of each system probed individually. Entangled networks can thus elucidate non-classical correlations between probes over distributed nodes. Extending the physical limits of sensing to measure and analyze complex datasets from the environment at the thermodynamic and quantum noise limits can aid with societal well-being and public health. The convergent expertise of the team assembled brings together quantum science & engineering, electrical & computer engineering, atmospheric & geosciences, chemistry & biochemistry, and applied mathematics. This effort is aligned with the launch of the US CHIPS and Science Act, and for US competitiveness in quantum technologies. Atmospheric and geoscientists will leverage new quantum measurement technologies from this project to address key measurement challenges: varied measured environments, better time resolution in spectroscopy, higher sensitivity through distributed entanglement, and/or the ability to measure transient species. A major societal impact will be in public health decision-making, based on newly enabled measurements and real-time analyses of atmospheric chemistries with unprecedented spatial-temporal resolution, providing actionable information on locality, e.g., to prevent respiratory illness, enabled in real-time by a comprehensive entangled network of quantum sensors. With UCLA on track to become an Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) by 2025, this effort develops a highly qualified, diverse workforce, building on a track-record of non-traditional education programs, including the Cal-Bridge and Physics Bridge, creating opportunities for historically underrepresented groups at Cal State campuses. UCLA Women in Engineering WE@UCLA Technical Academies will introduce quantum sensing with programming around this program’s technologies resulting, in collaboration with industry, startups, and non-academic stakeholders in atmospheric chemistry and geosciences.Quantum sensing is a powerful paradigm that encompasses the use of non-classical states of light and matter to probe species of interest. Compared to classical probes, non-classical states of light in metrology, including frequency-multiplexed high-dimensional entangled photons and squeezed light across distributed networks, exhibit uncharted sensing capabilities. This project comprises two interdisciplinary and synergistic Thrusts: 1. quantum-enabled networked sensor systems, involving sensor data fusion and multimodal learning on quantum sensors, and distributed entanglement-assisted high-dimensional precision phase metrology in remote sensing at and beyond the standard quantum limit (SQL). This effort is complemented with thrust 2. on quantum sensor arrays for molecular fingerprinting, involving hyperspectral dual-comb spectroscopy and stabilization beyond the standard quantum limit, and molecular dual-comb spectroscopy at the Schawlow-Townes limits and a quantum-limited THz spectrometer. Relevant to the broader quantum sensing community, the program will demonstrate distributed entanglement for quantum metrology towards below-SQL biochemical sensitivities, including biphoton and multi-partite time-frequency entanglement sources, in the presence of noise and channel losses in each sensing pathway. The team focus will be on chemical species that are challenging to measure, including reduced and oxidized forms of N, S, and C, as well as NH3, NOx, and free radical chemistries. Further, the team leverages and advances the mathematics of real-time analyses and quantum sensor data fusion. This project was co-funded by the Quantum Sensors Challenge for Transformative Advances in Quantum Systems (QuSeC-TAQS) program, and the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.