The Quantum Technology’s Hub for Sensors and Metrology have further showcased their research in reducing the size, weight and power consumption in cold atoms based quantum technology devices, enabling us to realise the extraordinary metrological performance outside of a lab environment.
In the article published in Scientific Reports (nature.com), colleagues at the Hub demonstrated the use of a laser powder bed fusion, an additive manufacturing technique, as a production technique, relevant to the manufacture of quantum sensors.
As part of the demonstration, two key components were constructed using additive manufacturing: magnetic shielding and vacuum chambers. The initial prototypes for magnetic shields show shielding factors within a factor of 3 of conventional approaches. The vacuum demonstrator device show shielding factors shows that 3D-printed titanium structures are suitable for use as vacuum chambers.
These demonstrations show considerable promise for the use of additive manufacturing for cold atom based quantum technologies, enabling improved integrated structures in the future, essentially allowing for the reduction in size, weight and assembly complexity.
To read the article, please visit: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20352-x.
