Quantum Computing News, Quantum Sensors

Berkeley Lab’s Quantum Sensor Cuts Interference by 1,000-Fold

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May 9, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

Berkeley Lab scientists have achieved a 1,000-fold suppression of interference in quantum sensors without relying on bulky external shielding, a breakthrough that promises to extend high-precision magnetic field measurements beyond the laboratory. The new method utilizes rapid toggling of nuclear spins between stable states, generating a self-referencing signal that actively cancels environmental noise, a departure from previous sensors that attempted to block it. This intrinsic resilience provides immunity to environmental and control disturbances, according to researchers, and allows for broadband sensing of both static and alternating current fields up to 1.25 kHz. The technology, currently validated at Technology Readiness Level 4, opens possibilities for applications ranging from GPS-denied navigation to precision nuclear gyroscopes and particle accelerator diagnostics.

Rapid Nuclear Spin Modulation Cancels Environmental Noise

This internal modulation technique delivers high-fidelity, broadband magnetic sensing, currently detecting alternating current fields up to 1.25 kHz, with the potential for even higher frequencies. This exceeds the capabilities of many existing sensors limited to static fields. The elimination of bulky shielding and complex compensation systems represents a significant advancement, enabling applications previously considered impractical. Currently validated at Technology Readiness Level 4, the new method promises to unlock opportunities in areas such as GPS-denied passive navigation, nanoscale nuclear magnetic resonance, and precision nuclear gyroscopes, with the technology available for licensing or collaborative research.

DC-1.25 kHz Broadband Sensing Achieved Without Shielding

Researchers at Berkeley Lab have overcome a longstanding limitation of quantum sensors, extreme sensitivity to environmental disturbances, by implementing a self-referencing technique that actively cancels noise. The sensors can detect fields up to 25 kHz alongside static fields, exceeding the performance of many existing quantum sensors. This internal modulation technique delivers high-fidelity sensing, opening avenues for applications like passive navigation in GPS-denied environments and precision diagnostics for particle accelerators. The elimination of traditional shielding not only reduces system complexity but also expands the range of viable operating environments, potentially enabling quantum magnetometry in moving vehicles or industrial settings; a patent is pending for this technology, and licensing or collaborative research opportunities are available.

This intrinsic resilience provides comprehensive immunity to environmental and control disturbances, rejecting interference by over 1,000-fold.

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Avatar of Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney has been working with neural networks and machine learning since the mid-nineties, back when a couple of hidden layers and a long afternoon of training counted as ambitious. She has watched the field go from academic curiosity to the thing quietly running underneath everything, and she brings that long view to quantum computing. For Quantum Zeitgeist she covers the ground where the two fields meet. That means quantum machine learning and the variational algorithms it leans on, and it also means the less glamorous but more interesting story of classical machine learning already doing real work inside quantum machines, decoding error-correcting codes, calibrating noisy hardware and learning the error models that simulators depend on. She writes about the hardware those algorithms have to run on too, and about the post-quantum cryptography scramble that the same hardware has set off. Her stories typically start with the paper, whether that is peer-reviewed work, conference proceedings or an arXiv preprint, with the source linked so you can hold a claim up against the research it came from. She is unimpressed by benchmarks that will not say what they beat, and by demonstrations that only work in the press release.

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