Quantum technology start-up Quantum Computing Inc (QCI) this week touted a field validation of its quantum sensing technology for detecting buried landmines, an announcement that comes just as the market for quantum sensors and applications appears poised for take-off over the next several years.
QCI, based in Leesburg, Virginia, said the Quantum Photonic Detection and Ranging (QpDAR) Variant 3 (VX3) unexploded ordnance detection sensor from its QI Solutions subsidiary was validated last month at Oklahoma State University’s Center for Fire and Explosives, Forensic Investigation, Training and Research (CENFEX) range in Pawnee, Oklahoma. The QpDAR VX3 used Quantum Single Photon Detection (QSPD) in combination with Quantum Parametric Mode Selection (QPMS) to detect landmines and unexploded ordnances from ground level to sub-surface depths of up to 30-inches.
Though quantum sensing technologies from many companies are still in development and validation stages–QCI’s QpDAR is not yet commercially available–quantum sensors potentially could be game-changers in a number of applications due to their ability to take faster, more precise, and more accurate measurements than conventional sensors. The ability to detect even the smallest changes in electromagnetic fields, electrical activity, light, temperature, humidity, and other environmental conditions, as well as objects located underground or objects in motion, has resulted in exploration of how they could be used in aerospace and defense, underground discovery, medical imaging, autonomous vehicles, and more.
Bill McGann, Chief Technology & Operations Officer at QCI, said quantum sensors could even be used in semiconductor manufacturing to detect defects as chips are coming off the assembly line during the manufacturing process. “Those defects can occur in small traces on a chip right and… we could actually do non-destructive evaluation in applications where you are looking for defects at a very small scale of resolution,” he said. “We’ve shown in a lab that we can generate nanometer resolution.”
That could translate into savings of time and money for a semiconductor ecosystem that is still feeling the effects of supply chain challenges and trying to find new ways to make its production processes more efficient.
Finding Landmines
Landmine detection does not require “nanometer resolution” but it does offer an important, high-profile proving ground for QCI’s technology. The company noted in its announcement this week that human mine detectors often risk their lives to find them, and that according to United Nations News, currently there are roughly 110 million landmines buried across 70 countries and territories, with the potential that they still could be triggered years or even decades from now. QCI added, “It has been forecasted that it will take approximately 1,100 years to clear all the world’s current active landmines.” Meanwhile, they kill and maim 1,000 to 2,000 people every month, and their existence also often renders prime agricultural land too dangerous to cultivate.
QCI’s technology, and similar tools and applications from other quantum sensing companies, could offer a safer and more effective solution. The QpDAR uses “high speed, low power optical pulses at an eye-safe wavelength to illuminate a remote target and measure the few returning photons by projecting them to a single quantum mode,” the company stated in its news release. This results in reduced ambient noise and “leads to extremely sensitive measurement of the mechanical and chemical states of targets at distance...”
Key to QCI’s approach are the aforementioned QSPD and QPMS. Asked how they work, McGann explained at length via email:
“Single photon detection is a critical part of enhanced sensitivity performance of the QpDAR system; but is ONLY one element that makes it special. The system uses time-gated single photon detection to achieve sensitivity at long distances using low power lasers. This time-gated detection of single photons is a novel approach to sensitive detection; but not in itself a quantum phenomenon. The critical element of the detection architecture is to use QPMS to achieve superior signal-to-noise performance in the photon detection process. QPMS is a non-linear quantum optics effect whereby a non-linear crystal (Lithium Niobate) is used to take ALL of the quantized, time-gated photon states of the signal photons and populate them into a single Spatial mode for detection. This effectively allows the signal photons to be detected with much greater signal-to-noise because the noise photons remain distributed across all of the spatial-temporal modes – thus enhancing the measured S/N [signal-to-noise]. There is a published paper in Nature Vol. 11 Article Number 921, (2020) …that describes the details of this effect and illustrates its implementation. This is a long answer, but it is the answer.”
McGann added in a later face-to-face interview via Microsoft Teams that He also said single-photon detection itself already is in use in many current lidar tools, but that QPMS is a differentiator that allows “quantum signal to noise enhancement so you can measure very precisely.”
This could make QpDAR superior to other sensing techniques that could be applied to landmine detection, including electromagnetic techniques “such as simple electrometers, ground penetrating radars, zero-field magnetic resonance methods (quadrupole resonance), and even ultrasensitive chemical detection using explosives trace detection (ETDs),” McGann stated. “While each of these methodologies have shown some efficacy in their use, none satisfy the strict requirements for very high probability of detection coupled to very low false alarm rates.”
Still, while promising, QpDAR remains at an early stage, and McGann made clear that there is still work to be done. “The system performed very well in terms of probability of detection (data is still being analyzed). However, extensive studies on the false alarm rate have not been conducted as of yet. This is a critical part of developing a practical commercial system. So, the commercialization efforts will continue and more field data–lots of it–will be required in order to produce a robust and effective photonics based mine detection system.”
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A market awaits
When ready, QpDAR and similar solutions from other quantum technology firms could be faced with rapidly expanding market opportunities. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in a July 2023 report said the market for quantum sensing technologies, while a small portion of a much larger market, is ripe for growth during the rest of this decade. “The total attainable market for sensors is projected to reach $170 billion to $200 billion by 2030, and we expect the global quantum-sensing market to reach $3 billion to $5 billion by 2030 (or a 2% to 3% share of the wider sensor market), which will help propel the global market for all quantum technologies to $20 billion to $40 billion.
Another report on the topic just came out of Global Quantum Intelligence, whose Chief Analyst David Shaw stated, “Quantum sensing is one of the commonly recognized pillars of quantum technology and one that has the most near-term applications, especially when compared to quantum computing. It is a broad field that is delivering innovative techniques that will result in many expected impacts across sectors over the next few years.”