Fundamental metrology in the future: measuring the single quantum

When?

Thursday 25 November 2010, 13:00

Where?

02ATI02

Open to:

Staff, Students

Speaker:

Professor John Gallop, National Physical Laboratory (NPL)

This year the SI system of units is 50 years old. But it is important to recognise that the development of the SI is not complete. New physics and technologies can always be expected to emerge and these will require changes to the SI. A coming trend is that measurement is changing from dealing with average properties of ensembles to metrology on single entities. This is already apparent for single atoms, ions or photon detection and measurement but can be expected to extend into the technologically important areas of single spins, single THz photons and even phonons in the future. Another significant development may be anticipated, that is measurement of quite different physical quantities from those currently required, such as spin current, decoherence time etc. The talk addresses some of these issues, as well as the influence of quantum mechanics on precise measurement, which will also increase as metrology addresses both single entities and the nano scale.