Demonstration of entanglement-enhanced phase estimation in solid

Control and Entanglement of Individual Rydberg Atoms near a Nanoscale Device

Coherent control of Rydberg atoms near dielectric surfaces is a major challenge due to the large sensitivity of Rydberg states to electric fields. We demonstrate coherent single-atom operations and two-qubit entanglement as close as 100  μm from a nanophotonic device. Using the individual atom control enabled by optical tweezers to study the spatial and temporal properties of the electric field from the surface, we employ dynamical decoupling techniques to characterize and cancel the electric-field noise with submicrosecond temporal resolution. We further use entanglement-assisted sensing to accurately map magnitude and direction of electric-field gradients on a micrometer scale. Our observations open a path for integration of Rydberg arrays with micro- and nanoscale devices for applications in quantum networking and quantum information science.

Realistic model of entanglement-enhanced sensing in optical fibers

Experimental limitations such as optical loss and noise have prevented entanglement-enhanced measurements from demonstrating a significant quantum advantage in sensitivity. Holland-Burnett entangled states can mitigate these limitations and still present a quantum advantage in sensitivity. Here we model a fiber-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer with internal loss, detector efficiency, and external phase noise and without pure entanglement. This model features a practical fiber source that transforms the two-mode squeezed vacuum (TMSV) into Holland-Burnett entangled states. We predict that a phase sensitivity 28% beyond the shot noise limit is feasible with current technology. Simultaneously, a TMSV source can provide about 25 times more photon flux than other entangled sources. This system will make fiber-based quantum-enhanced sensing accessible and practical for remote sensing and probing photosensitive materials.

Beating the standard quantum limit under ambient conditions with solid-state spins

The use of entangled sensors improves the precision limit from the standard quantum limit (SQL) to the Heisenberg limit. Most previous experiments beating the SQL are performed on the sensors that are well isolated under extreme conditions. Here, we demonstrate a sub-SQL interferometer at ambient conditions by using a multispin system, namely, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond. We achieve two-spin interference with a phase sensitivity of 1.79 ± 0.06 dB beyond the SQL and three-spin interference with a phase sensitivity of 2.77 ± 0.10 dB. Besides, a magnetic sensitivity of 0.87 ± 0.09 dB beyond the SQL is achieved by two-spin interference for detecting a real magnetic field. Particularly, the deterministic and joint initialization of NV negative state, NV electron spin, and two nuclear spins is realized at room temperature. The techniques used here are of fundamental importance for quantum sensing and computing, and naturally applicable to other solid-state spin systems.

Observing Information Backflow from Controllable Non-Markovian Multichannels in Diamond

The unavoidable interaction of a quantum open system with its environment leads to the dissipation of quantum coherence and correlations, making its dynamical behavior a key role in many quantum technologies. In this Letter, we demonstrate the engineering of multiple dissipative channels by controlling the adjacent nuclear spins of a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. With a controllable non-Markovian dynamics of this open system, we observe that the quantum Fisher information flows to and from the environment using different noisy channels. Our work contributes to the developments of both noisy quantum metrology and quantum open systems from the viewpoints of metrologically useful entanglement.

Quantum metrology with spin cat states under dissipation

Quantum metrology aims to yield higher measurement precisions via quantum techniques such as entanglement. It is of great importance for both fundamental sciences and practical technologies, from testing equivalence principle to designing high-precision atomic clocks. However, due to environment effects, highly entangled states become fragile and the achieved precisions may even be worse than the standard quantum limit (SQL). Here we present a high-precision measurement scheme via spin cat states (a kind of non-Gaussian entangled states in superposition of two quasi-orthogonal spin coherent states) under dissipation. In comparison to maximally entangled states, spin cat states with modest entanglement are more robust against losses and their achievable precisions may still beat the SQL. Even if the detector is imperfect, the achieved precisions of the parity measurement are higher than the ones of the population measurement. Our scheme provides a realizable way to achieve high-precision measurements via dissipative quantum systems of Bose atoms.