Researchers from the UAB and the University of Nottingham, in an article published today in Physical Review Letters , have fixed the limits of thermometry, i.e., they have established the smallest possible fluctuation in temperature which can be measured. The researchers have studied the sensitivity of thermometers created with a handful of atoms, small enough to be capable of showing typical quantum-style behaviours.
The researchers characterised these types of probes in detail, devices which could provide an estimation of the temperature with a never before seen precision. To do so, they combined thermodynamic tools with quantum metrology, which deals with ultra-precise measures in quantum systems.
The physicists searched to find the maximum precision which could be achieved in a real situation, in which measuring time could be very brief given unavoidable experimental limitations. In the research, they also observed that these thermometers could maintain a constant sensitivity in a wide range of temperatures by sacrificing some of their precision.
For the authors of the research, "finding a nanothermometer sensitive enough at this scale is a great step forward in the field of nanotechnology, with applications in biology, chemistry, physics and even in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases".
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Physical Review Letters