QUANTUM MAGNETOMETRY Recent breakthrough in subfemtotesla precision using magneto-optical atomic magnetometry in the spin-exchange relaxation free (SERF) regime has made the previously unsensible practically detectable. With the theoretical limit beyond attotesla, this novel and scalable quantum magnetic sensor has drawn new minimal baselines that benchmark all kinds of magnetic-field related applications. Because most of assemble parts and component devices have been developed in at the Research Center for Quantum Technology, Chiang Mai University, further development to finally build such quantum magnetic sensor is now plausible with cost efficiency. Medical Applications Brain and Heart Scanner An atomic magnetometer with sensitivity unreachable with current commercial products available is built to real-time record ultraweak brain and heart signals. Several noninvasive modular sensors can be connected and scaled up like 3D jigsaw puzzles to enable large-area scanning. Quantum magnetic sensing is to see what is happening inside a system of 86 billion neurons with nearly one quadrillion connections from the outside. Quantum Tech: With no magnetic pulse induced into the human body, the passive magnetic flux at the optically pumped Rb-85 atomic cloud in the SERF regime is measured via laser intensity variation due to the rotation of atomic polarization axes. Direct Societal Impacts: Early-stage diagnoses and treatments of brain injury, epilepsy, dementia, and neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, autism, and prion diseases (quantitative estimation of the economic effect due to increasing numbers of brain patients is needed). Collateral Advantages: Wireless brain-controlled machinery, brain-machine interface to control … Continue reading QUANTUM MAGNETOMETRY