The Magic of NV
There seems to be a mini deluge of interest stories regarding the properties of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) diamonds for quantum sensing of late. TQD’s pieces here and here complement the profile articles we covered on the startup Quantum Diamond Technologies Inc (QDTI), as well as the listicle piece 14 Companies Focused on Quantum Sensing and Manufacturing Superior Instrumentation To Revolutionize The Industry.
As we move into the Quantum 2.0 era, scientists, researchers and street-smart entrepreneurs will undoubtedly find new ways to improve outcomes using quantum mechanics as its go-to source of technological innovation.
And NV diamonds will surely be a part of that equation with players like QDTI making their mark on the sector, along with others in the vein of QZabre LLC.
QZabre
Founded in 2018 by joint CEO Jan Rhensius as a spinoff from the Spin Physics group of Prof. Christian Degen at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, QZabre’s novel IP in imaging — based on the atomic defects in diamond — is set to change things in a big way.
“QZabre has provided us with greatly optimized NV scanning tips, which have excellent optical properties, NV coherence, and tuning forks. They make it possible to perform quantum sensing and nano scale magnetometry for studying spintronics devices.”
— Myeongwon Lee, Korea University
The startup’s products consist of NV scanning tips and turn-key scanning diamond microscopes. As an authority in NV scanning diamond magnetometry, the QZabre team’s Quantum Sensor Tips employ a single magnetic impurity in diamond (NV center) as an atomic-size magnetic quantum sensor with a high level of performance, single-crystal quality, high brightness, several contrast grades while each probe is handcrafted and customized to suit the customers’ requirements.
The Quantum Scanning Microscope (QSM), on the other hand, is the world’s first compact, turn-key scanning NV magnetometer instrument that is a next-generation scanning probe microscope whose technology is based on QZabre’s diamond sensor technology which can be applied to vector field analysis of magnetic nanostructures; imaging of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic domains; quantitative analysis of domain wall width and chirality; mapping of helimagnetic, skyrmionic and multiferroic textures; detecting bio-magnetic or bio-electric signals; in geomagnetism; nanoscale thermometry; and correlative microscopy as well as other applications.
And with a happy academic client base that stretches the globe from Cornell University to the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore’s lead public sector R&D agency (A-Star Research), things are looking up for QZabre.
With research experience in nanotechnology and x-ray microscopy at ETH Zurich, the National University of Singapore and the Paul Sherrer Institute, Dr. Jan Rhensius’ practical exploits have been in fabrication and magnetic imaging in order to build high-performance NV scanning probes, bringing him to the point of founding QZabre.
Assisting him is the executive team of joint CEO Dr. Gabriel Puebla-Hellmann and CTO Dr. Andrea Morales, not forgetting a great support team of software engineers and product developers.
With financial support in part by funding from ETH Zurich, the National Centres of Competence in Research on Quantum Science and Technology (NCCR QSIT), the Competence Center for Materials Science and Technology (CCMX), Innosuisse (Innosuisse), and the FP7 ICT DIADEMS Programme of the European Union, it looks like QZabre has everything in place to improve upon the technology while at the same time scaling it.
For more market insights, check out our latest quantum computing news here.
