Our project focuses on quantum realisations of the ampere, the SI unit of electrical current The ampere is the base unit of electrical current in the International System of units (the SI system). Up until May 2019 this had been formally defined by mechanical forces between wires. This definition has been replaced by one based on the quantisation of charge. The e-SI-Amp project was created to develop ways to create and disseminate precision electrical current standards within this redefined system based on fundamental constants. News: New SI system adopted! Si Base units The new system of base units comes into force from the 20th of May, including the redefined ampere, which is based on fixing the numerical value of the elementary charge. There is a nice overview of the redefinition on wikipedia. For more detailed information on how to realise the ampere see this review article. Click here for a full list of news stories… News: Final project meeting of e-SI-Amp consortium LNE, Paris The final progress meeting of e-SI-Amp has been held in Paris at the headquarters of LNE. For further details click here. Click here for a full list of news stories… News: Review Articles on quantum standards Several members of the e-SI-Amp consortium have written detailed papers on the subject of quantum electrical standards and the SI redefinition. These papers, which are available to read open access, describe the opportunities and the challenges of using quantum electrical standards in state-of-the-art electrical metrology. Click here for a full list of news stories… Paper: Single‐Electron Pumps and Quantum Current Metrology in the Revised SI (PTB) Paper: The ampere and the electrical units in the quantum era (LNE) News: Unanimous decision to approve the new SI CGPM The World’s metrology community has met at the CGPM to decide whether the long-awaited redefinition of the SI base units could go ahead, and the answer was unanimous – yes! There are lots of reports covering this vote, e.g. Physics World , BIPM news Click here for a full list of news stories… News: Helmholtz Prize 2018 The 2018 Helmholtz prize for “Precision Measurements in Applied Measurement Technology” has been awarded to e-SI-Amp partners PTB for work on improvements in the accurate measurement and generation of small currents. Click here for a full list of news stories… Recent published (open access) scientific results: Our project is generating new scientific results, shared with the scientific community via peer-reviewed papers in high quality journals. These papers are open access – the full text of the articles is available to everybody, even those with no subscription to these journals. See the gallery below for a summary of the most recent ones (these contain links to the full text). If you have any questions about these results, project partners would interested to speak to you (contact jdf@npl.co.uk or project partners directly). Knowledge transfer and interaction with end-users We are working with end-user communities to help them access ultra stable electrical current standards. We are looking for ways in which measurement best practice, the latest instrumentation and information about primary standards can be shared with these users. Here are some examples of existing interactions with end-users: If you would like to know how you can interact with the project contact jdf@npl.co.uk. Recent news on the new SI… The Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) have proposed a resolution to the 26th CGPM on the redefinition of the base units. This marks another step towards the adoption of the new SI in May 2019. Following such a redefinition, electrical standards can be derived directly using techniques developed in our project, such as single-electron pumps. The recommendations of the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) Task Group on Fundamental Constants (TGFC) have also been accepted for publication in Metrologia. This includes the recommended values of the fundamental constants that would be used in the redefined SI system. Background The SI ampere will soon be redefined, with the existing definition based on mechanical forces being replaced by a definition based on the quantisation of charge. All electrons have an identical charge, something which can be used to form the basis for the definition of electrical current. Proposed SI base units using quantum electrical units The size of the electron charge is presently measured to be e = 1.602 176 6208(98) × 10−19 Coulombs in the present SI system. Fixing this as a constant in a new system of units enables new ways to produce precise standards of electrical current. Single electron pumps can transport electrons one at a time at high speed. Moving individual electrons at a known rate though a circuit using these devices gives a very precise standard of current. Quantum standards of resistance and voltage can also be used to realise quantum electrical units in a manner consistent with the fixing of the quantisation of the electronic charge. Schematic representation of an electron pump Practical realisation of an electron pump in a semiconductor device The Consortium We are a group of European National Measurement Institutes and other research institutions with expertise in single electron devices, quantum electrical standards and precision measurements of small currents. Motivation We aim to support future primary electrical metrology based on single-electron devices. Our objectives are to develop: Single-electron-based current sources at a current level of ≈1 nA with uncertainty at, or below, 1 part in 107. Tests of universality, robustness and reproducibility of single-electron-based current sources for the practical realisation of the SI ampere. High-accuracy current measurement capability across NMIs for the testing of various types of single-electron devices. Guidelines for testing the accuracy of single-electron-based current standards. A key aim is to facilitate the take up of the technology and measurement infrastructure developed by the project by the measurement supply chain (accredited laboratories, instrumentation manufacturers) and end users (industries where small-current measurements at pico-ampere and femto-ampere levels are required). Formally, the project is divided into four interconnected workpackages. WP1: Development of single-electron current sources WP2: Validation of single-electron current sources WP3: Improved traceability of high-accuracy current measurement setups WP4: Creating impact Error thrownCall to undefined function simplexml_load_string()
