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An Increasing Range of Applications and Sampling by Attenuated Total Reflection
Shimadzu Review 82[1・2] (2025)
Abstract
This year marks 100 years since the advent of quantum mechanics. Today, quantum technologies are a popular focus of development throughout the world, including fields such as quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing. This article describes a quantum sensing technology that uses quantum-entangled photon pairs in infrared spectroscopy. This new technique harnesses the quantum-entangled photon pairs to perform infrared absorption spectroscopy with a visible light detector, and offers the promise of new applications for infrared absorption spectroscopy that take advantage of the superior sensitivity and dynamic range of visible light detection. Professor Shigeki Takeuchiʼs group at Kyoto University, Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany, research institutes in Singapore, and other groups are all competing to develop this technology, and Shimadzu is currently collaborating with the Takeuchi Laboratory at Kyoto University to develop a quantum infrared spectrometer based on this technique. This article describes the generation of quantum-entangled photon pairs, infrared spectroscopic technology that harnesses this generation of quantum-entangled photon pairs, and the latest application of attenuated total reflection (ATR) in quantum spectroscopy. ATR is a sampling technique that allows samples to be analyzed simply by placing the sample against a prism. ATR can be used to analyze samples that absorb almost all infrared light and are not suitable for transmission sampling, thus promising to expand the range of applications for quantum infrared spectroscopy.
1Advanced Analysis Unit, Technology Research Laboratory, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan
2Research & Development Department, Industrial Machinery Division, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan
3Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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