Sensing in the second quantum revolution

Quantum Mechanics has revolutionized not only our understanding of Nature but also, being the foundation of electronics and lasers, virtually all the instruments we use every day. Then again, we have not yet been able to harness the consequences of the most profoundly quantum phenomena such as state superpositions and particle entanglement. The Second Quantum Revolution has the ambition of building novel "quantum machines" able to fully exploit the properties of both microscopic and macroscopic quantum states. <br/> <br/> Quantum sensors, making use of the phenomenon of entanglement in systems promise to reach the fundamental measurement limits determined by the laws of physics and correspondingly improve the current performance of the sensors by orders of magnitude in terms of precision and accuracy, with important application implications in the scientific, industrial, and commercial fields. They can measure with unprecedented precision a wide class of physical quantities, such as magnetic, electric, and inertial fields, times, frequencies, temperatures and pressures.