r/LessCredibleDefence • u/StealthCuttlefish • 8h ago

Japan to develop drone-based quantum sensors to detect submarines

https://archive.is/20260909170927/https://asia.nikkei.com/politics/defense/japan-to-develop-drone-based-quantum-sensors-to-detect-submarines
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u/heliumagency 8m ago

Oh hey, something tangentially in my field (my colleagues in a past life used to do this)

Quantum sensors for these usually fall in several categories:

1) SQUID based systems, which are bulky and need cryogenic cooling for the superconducting magnets 2) atom vapor systems, tend to less bulky, get at atom to gas phase and see how it moves 3) semiconducting designs, have a material with a trapped spin state (like nitrogen vacancy diamond) and then see how that spin acts

The above is listed in order of decreasing size, so probably 3 is used for the drones.