Abstract

Quantum technologies have been rapidly developing over the past two decades. They are now at a stage of maturity where quantum sensors, which utilize quantum systems and their properties for sensing, are being deployed in the field and provide an unprecedented level of sensitivity and precision for measuring accelerations, rotations, and gravitational gradients. In addition to these field deployable sensors, an international effort is pushing for very large-scale instruments with applications in fundamental physics, searching for ultralight dark matter and gravitational waves in an unexplored frequency domain. In this seminar I will introduce one variant of quantum sensors based on ultra cold atoms: atom interferometry. The current state of both mobile and large-scale atom interferometers will be presented, and we will explore their applications for Earth Sciences, specifically seismology, as well as their limitations. This novel instrumentation provides an exciting path forward in terms of multi-disciplinary research bridging geophysics and fundamental physics through the portal of quantum mechanics.