Development of a quantum-enhanced biological electron microscope

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25390083
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Thin film/Surface and interfacial physical properties
• Research Institution: Akita Prefectural University
• Principal Investigator: Okamoto Hiroshi 秋田県立大学, システム科学技術学部, 准教授 (70455799)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 電子顕微鏡 / 超伝導量子ビット

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Today's biological electron microscopy faces a significant problem: Radiation damage. Too few imaging electrons result in a noisy image, whereas too many electrons lead to destruction of the frozen biological specimen. This is the dilemma, which appears to be a fundamental barrier. We set out to solve this problem using quantum technologies. Initially we proposed to use the Cooper pair box that is a superconducting charge qubit, on an electron mirror inside a transmission electron microscope (TEM).
In the project we theoretically found that a flux-based qubit would work better and we further analyzed properties of it. Because of this finding, we had to make a major change in our plan and move away from the idea of electron mirror. Nonetheless, we tested the vacuum system as well as a pulse tube refrigerator, which will be necessary setups no matter how we will proceed in the future.

Free Research Field

量子荷電粒子光学