Workshop "The Quantum Revolution in Metrology"

The revised International System of Units, the SI, will rest on seven defining constants. To realize the SI units based on the defining constants, methods of quantum metrology will be used in many cases. Consequently, the Bureau International de Poids et Mesures (BIPM) organized a workshop on the applications of quantum-based technologies to metrology. The Electricity Division of PTB presented two invited talks at the workshop.

The workshop "The Quantum Revolution in Metrology" was held at the premises of the BIPM near Paris on the 28^th and 29^th September, 2017. The objective of the workshop was to promote scientific exchange amongst national metrology institutes, universities and research institutes. More than a hundred scientists attended the workshop. The workshop was structured into five technical sessions, complemented by poster presentations, which dealt with a broad range of topics: from quantum radiometry based on the manipulation of single photons, to quantum standards of mechanical quantities and temperature, the latest advances of optical single-ion and lattice clocks, to quantum standards of electrical and magnetic quantities.

The Electricity Division of PTB co-organized the session on electrical quantum standards and presented two invited talks. In an introductory talk, Uwe Siegner gave an overview of the development of quantum standards of electrical voltage, resistance, and current and consistency tests of electrical quantum metrology. Hans Werner Schumacher presented the latest results of PTB on the manipulation and detection of single electrons and in situ validated quantum current standards, which are based on single-electron transport. This technology was pioneered by PTB and will allow the electrical base unit, the ampere, to be directly realized in the revised SI.