The Basque Government supports with 1.9 million euros the initiatives promoted by TECNALIA to develop quantum sensor hardware “Made in Euskadi” – July 2022.

TECNALIA’s QTech team led by Iñigo Arizaga and Esther Villar has obtained the support for the research line on quantum sensors based on Nitrogen-Vacancy Center technology, a line with enormous industrial potential.

• Sensors with unprecedented sensitivity. Quantum properties are exploited to perform detections with sensitivity thousands of orders of magnitude better than current technologies.
• Multi-sector application. The type of applications that can be built is immense: in the field of industry, health, mobility, metrology, etc.

• Orchestrating capabilities. The initiatives bring together the capacities of different agents in the Basque Country and aspire to become a benchmark in this field.

The Basque Government has supported the QFirst and Q-eNVy initiatives through its ELKARTEK and AZPITEK programs, respectively. The initiatives seek to bring together the research capacity of the different agents of the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation ecosystem in quantum technologies for sensors based on NV-centers, with the ambitious goal of making the region a world leader in this field. They also contribute to the European strategy for sovereignty in critical technologies and to have in Europe the capacities to design and produce the necessary components of the value chain of the systems associated with these critical technologies.

QFirst aims to develop quantum components (quantum hardware) for ultra-resolution sensors using solid-state physics technologies based on NV-centers, a robust technology for the operation of this type of device in ambient conditions. The research pursues unprecedented performance and precision for the detection of physical and chemical properties, identification and traceability, secure industrial communication, metrology, or inertial positioning – that is, of great transversal application. In this way, it aims to contribute to improving the competitiveness of the Basque ecosystem in the high-tech industrial sector, metrology, and analysis. The QFirst initiative is coordinated by TECNALIA and has the collaboration of the UPV/EHU, TEKNIKER, the MATERIALS PHYSICS CENTER and AVS NEXT. 

Q-eNVy complements the previous one with a scientific-technological infrastructure to support R&D&i in this field of knowledge, complementing the already existing infrastructures in the territory. In this first phase, the laboratory is being equipped with a CVD reactor for the growth of quantum-grade diamond crystals and with an ion implantation column, equipment that will be progressively expanded in successive phases. 

The field of quantum sensors targeted by these initiatives is particularly interesting. Through the technologies contemplated, the coherent superposition of quantum states is used to make measurements of electromagnetic fields and other properties with unprecedented sensitivity, thousands of orders of magnitude better than with current technologies. The type of applications that can be built from there is immense: in the field of health (e.g., nuclear magnetic resonance, lab-on-chip, diagnosis…), in the field of mobility (inertial sensors, radars), in industry (tags, inspection), in metrology (size, time, magnetism…), etc. 

Even though it is a limited field of work, unravelling all the mysteries of physics and controlling them to create valuable technical developments with rapid application is still an impressive challenge. For this reason, the research team is progressively strengthening stable cooperation in this field of knowledge with other agents as the best formula to consolidate a leading ecosystem in quantum sensing and to accelerate the deployment of innovations with a clear impact for society.