One of the biggest headaches for the application of microscopic physics, noise, has allowed the most promising development in precision and preventive medicine: quantum sensors. Any interaction alters the state of a particle and this instability is one of the greatest limitations of computing with this science, which needs to control or correct it. However, the physicist from the University of Murcia Javier Prior, specialized in biology, thermodynamics and quantum sensors, has turned this disadvantage into an enormous opportunity to open an unprecedented field by identifying any alteration at the smallest cellular level in its first steps. Nanometric pure diamonds serve to house particles that react to any anomaly in the development of the smallest biological units and allow the dysfunction to be identified at the initial stage or in a microfluid of the body. It is a microscopic beacon that sends signals when it detects the first physicochemical sign of an incipient cellular storm.
Prior heads a group whose collaborators he met after his time at the universities of Oxford, Imperial College and Ulm. They are, mainly, Fedor Jelezko, pioneer of NV (vacancy nitrogen) diamonds, and Alex Retzker, sensor expert. This relationship and a patent on microfluidics based on quantum sensors (which allows optically reading responses in minimal liquid or gaseous substances) opened the new door that has led to the creation of Qlab, an initiative that combines research with business and is working on possible support from the Ministry for Digital Transformation .
It is complex, but Prior makes an effort to simplify years of research: “We have a device that is very sensitive to a certain external action. We generate a quantum system. I take an electron and, using ultrafast pulses, put it in a superposition where it is spinning to one side, which is known as spin (rotation in English), although it is not really a turn, and on the contrary at the same time. Since any quantum state is very sensitive to the action of any electric or magnetic field or other physical parameter, we use it as a compass. If you bring a magnet close to it, the needle moves and aligns itself with the magnetic field. “My sensor detects the smallest magnetic fields and works at room temperature.”
The vehicle for this sensor capable of detecting the slightest signal is a diamond with the atomic particle nine nanometers from the surface—a nanometer is one billionth of a meter (10⁻⁹)—. “We make diamonds synthetic because natural ones have many impurities (that can affect the quantum system) and we want them very pure, since we are only interested in having carbon 12 atoms. We build them through chemical vapor deposition: a plasma is generated that is deposited layer by layer.” To insert the quantum particle, it accelerates and rushes against the diamond. “Depending on the speed and how you throw it, they’re going to go, let’s say, a certain distance,” he points out in an effort to summarize a complicated process.
The next step is to take the nanodiamond, which is absolutely biocompatible, to a cell in a Petri dish using optical tweezers, two lasers that trap the device: “In this way, it can be introduced into a part of the cell and detect if a protein related to inflammation is being generated. It is like introducing a camera that monitors the molecules at all times.” And he gives an example: “Free radicals do not have the same number of electrons as protons and are triggers of aging or many diseases, such as degenerative processes, because they steal particles from their neighbors.”
Its application in an organism could be through implantation, injection or simply, in the case of the brain, with a helmet that covers it and measures the electrical fields of the neurons.
Qlab, the company that emerged from this research, develops another quantum sensor concept known as Lab-in-chip, mini devices with laboratory functions capable of analyzing a sample of body microfluid with the same quantum principles and which could become domestic. In this case, a type of 100 nanometer channel would be made into the diamond to channel the microsamples and could yield a precise result similar to a blood test or a biopsy.
With the necessary financing, about which there are already talks of public and private investment, Prior is convinced of being able to develop semi-commercial prototypes of quantum sensors in five years. In addition to these precision and preventive medicine beacons, the same quantum technology can be applied to create a nuclear magnetic resonator that would emit a specific signal when the frequency matches that of what is being analyzed.
The quantum field is broad and Prior believes that Spain, in collaboration with other institutions, has the possibility of developing a strategic area that is already key and on which surrounding countries are betting. The devices and technology already exist and are proven, the next step is missing: institutional and private involvement in a technology whose growth forecasts exceed double digits.
Other advances
In this race for the control and use of quantum states, in which Spain can fight for a good starting position, there are many laboratories. A group of researchers led by Professor Nobuhiro Yanaifrom Kyushu University, has achieved quantum coherence (the maintenance of a state) for more than 100 nanoseconds at room temperature, according to a study published in Science Advances. The discovery has been possible through a chromophore, a molecule that absorbs light and emits color, in a metal-organic (MOF).
“The developed MOF is a unique system that can densely accumulate chromophores. Furthermore, the nanopores within the crystal allow the chromophore to rotate, but at a very restricted angle,” explains Yanai. This discovery is also relevant for sensor technologies. “This may open the doors to molecular quantum computing at room temperature, as well as quantum detection of various target compounds,” he says.
In the opposite direction it has advanced Kaden Hazzardprofessor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and co-author of A study published in Nature Physics. The experiment has been able to prolong quantum behavior almost 30 times (1.5 seconds) by using ultracold temperatures and laser wavelengths to generate a “trap” that delays the onset of decoherence.
“If you want to make new materials, new sensors or other quantum technologies, you need to understand what is happening at the quantum level, and this research is a step towards achieving new knowledge,” he explains.
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