Common Myths about Quantum - Part 2
Myth: Quantum physics has no practical use right now
The Quantum 1.0 Revolution
The benefits that quantum physics has brought to society to date spans areas from electronics to healthcare to even the transportation sector. Lasers, LEDs (light emitting diodes), hard disks, mobile phones, and even the basic building block of classical computers (the transistor) are some of the most common examples of quantum physics devices operating in our daily lives. These are examples of quantum 1.0 technology.
Quantum 1.0 Medical Technology
Various medical scans we use every day use quantum physics to examine our bodies, such as an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), which uses the magnetic moments of the protons in the water molecules inside your body to detect diseased tissue. X-ray exams use a part of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum to image inside your body. The visible light we see (from red to purple) is also part of the EM spectrum, as are radio waves, microwaves and higher energy EM radiation like gamma rays.
X-rays are an example of quantum 1.0 technology.
Antimatter and Gamma Rays!
Did you know that some medical exams even use antimatter?! Gamma rays and antimatter may sound like science fiction, but it’s not! There really does exist something called antimatter in our universe, which has all the same properties as regular matter (i.e. the stuff you are made out of) but with some of their quantum properties `flipped,’ like electric charge. For example, the antimatter particle of the electron is called the positron, and it has the same mass and quantum spin as an electron but opposite electric charge… hence the name!
When matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate and create pure energy (gamma rays). PET (positron emission tomography) can detect the metabolism within the body tissue/organ being examined. This is accomplished by first administering a radionuclide appropriate to the organ/tissue we want to image. Positrons are emitted as the radionuclide breaks down inside the body. The positrons instantly collide with nearby electrons to produce annihilation photons. The PET scanner registers these photon events and reconstructs an image of the organ/tissue.
These are all examples of quantum 1.0 technology because they deal with large samples of matter or energy (light), whereas quantum 2.0 tech uses individual particles of light (called photons) or atoms to do the sensing.
Quantum 2.0 Technology - Quantum Sensing
There are several new quantum sensing diagnostic tools that have applications in various sectors, including in the medical community, and are commercially available now. For example, Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) Centres in diamonds can be used as very precise magnetometers (sensing magnetic fields). Companies like SBQuantum in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada are developing these devices that can be used in a variety of applications, such as mining prospecting, navigation, mapping Earth’s magnetic field, and detecting submarines/hidden targets using magnetic sensing to name a few.
Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) Centres consist of a pair of adjacent defects in the diamond lattice: a nitrogen atom substituting for a carbon together with a vacancy (a missing atom). This image illustrates the atomic structure and how each NV Centre is composed of a nuclear spin and an electron spin. The ‘spin’ of a subatomic particle (i.e. electrons, protons, nuclei) is its total angular momentum and is analogous to a physically spinning particle. The introduction of the nitrogen atom in the carbon lattice frees up a single pair of electrons, and we can use the pair’s spin state to precisely measure magnetic fields at that location.
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v4/78
These quantum sensors work by first exciting the electron pair with a green laser, putting it in an “excited state” (i.e. higher energy). While in this excited state, the spin state of the electron pair interacts with the environment’s magnetic field. But everything in the universe wants to be in its most stable state (i.e. usually the lowest energy). So after this interaction with the magnetic field, the spin state will “flip” to its lower energy configuration, resulting in the electron pair emitting some red light. The amount of red light tells us about the magnetic field at that location, allowing a more precise 3D mapping to locate and classify hidden objects.
NV Centres can also be used as medical sensors to detect changes in the magnetic properties of cancer cells, determine molecular structures, and to conduct in vivo magnetic activity in animals. It’s even possible to create a portable MRI based on these quantum sensors!
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