We describe the formalism for optimally estimating and controlling both the state of a spin ensemble and a scalar magnetic field with information obtained from a continuous quantum limited measurement of the spin precession due to the field. The full quantum parameter estimation model is reduced to a simplified equivalent representation to which classical estimation and control theory is applied. We consider both the tracking of static and fluctuating fields in the transient and steady state regimes. By using feedback control, the field estimation can be made robust to uncertainty about the total spin number.
Our 2005 Physical Review Letter entitled "Suppression of Spin-Projection Noise in Broadband Atomic Magnetometry" (volume 94, 203002) relied heavily in its claims of experimental quantum-limited performance on the results of a prior publication from our group [1]. In subsequent work we have determined that the results of [1] were incorrect and must therefore retract this Physical Review Letter as well. The authors would like to emphasize that the broadband magnetometry approach taken in our work remains valid, as described in the theoretical paper [2], but we have lost confidence in the calibra…
We demonstrate a magnetometry technique using nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond which makes use of coherent two-photon transitions. We find that the sensitivity to magnetic fields can be significantly improved in isotopically purified diamond. Furthermore, the long-term stability of magnetic field measurements is significantly enhanced, thereby reducing the minimum detectable long-term field variations for both quasi-static and periodic fields. The method is useful both for sensing applications and as a spin qubit manipulation technique.
We propose a protocol to estimate magnetic fields using a single nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) center in diamond, where the estimate precision scales inversely with time, ~1/T$, rather than the square-root of time. The method is based on converting the task of magnetometry into phase estimation, performing quantum phase estimation on a single N-V nuclear spin using either adaptive or nonadaptive feedback control, and the recently demonstrated capability to perform single-shot readout within the N-V [P. Neumann et. al., Science 329, 542 (2010)]. We present numerical simulations to show that our method…
Magnetometry is a powerful technique for the non-invasive study of biological and physical systems. A key challenge lies in the simultaneous optimization of magnetic field sensitivity and maximum field range. In interferometry-based magnetometry, a quantum two-level system acquires a dynamic phase in response to an applied magnetic field. However, due to the 2π periodicity of the phase, increasing the coherent interrogation time to improve sensitivity results in reduced field range. Here we introduce a route towards both large magnetic field range and high sensitivity via measurements of the g…
We analyze magnetometry using an optically levitated nanodiamond. We consider a configuration where a magnetic field gradient couples the mechanical oscillation of the diamond with its spin degree of freedom provided by a Nitrogen vacancy center. First, we investigate measurement of the position spectrum of the mechanical oscillator. We find that conditions of ultrahigh vacuum and feedback cooling allow a magnetic field gradient sensitivity of 1 $μ$Tm$^{-1}$/$\sqrt{\mbox{Hz}}$. At high pressure and room temperature, this sensitivity degrades and can attain a value of the order of 100 $m$Tm$^{-…
We demonstrate real-time magnetometry by detecting fluorescence from a nitrogen vacancy center in the setting of coherent population trapping and by estimating magnetic field from the time series of the observed photon counts, which are correlated with the underlying field. The proof-of-principle experiment uses an external time-varying magnetic field that follows an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process. By taking into consideration the statistical properties of the OU process, a Bayesian inference-based estimator can effectively update dynamical information of the field in real time with the detec…
We address the estimation of the magnetic field B acting on an ensemble of atoms with total spin J subjected to collective transverse noise. By preparing an initial spin coherent state, for any measurement performed after the evolution, the mean-square error of the estimate is known to scale as $1/J$, i.e. no quantum enhancement is obtained. Here, we consider the possibility of continuously monitoring the atomic environment, and conclusively show that strategies based on time-continuous non-demolition measurements followed by a final strong measurement may achieve Heisenberg-limited scaling $1…
We demonstrate a spectrum demodulation technique for greatly speeding up the data acquisition rate in scanning nitrogen-vacancy center magnetometry. Our method relies on a periodic excitation of the electron spin resonance by fast, wide-band frequency sweeps combined with a phase-locked detection of the photo-luminescence signal. The method can be extended by a frequency feedback to realize real-time tracking of the spin resonance. Fast scanning magnetometry is especially useful for samples where the signal dynamic range is large, of order millitesla, like for ferro- or ferrimagnets. We demons…
Shallow Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers are promising candidates for high-precision sensing applications; these defects, when positioned a few nanometers below the surface, provide an atomic-scale resolution along with substantial sensitivity. However, the dangling bonds and impurities on the diamond surface result in a complex environment which reduces the sensitivity and is unique to each shallow NV center. To avoid the environment's detrimental effect, we apply feedback-based quantum optimal control. We first show how a direct search can improve the initialization/readout process. In a second…
We consider the effective dynamics obtained by double-passing a far-detuned laser probe through a large atomic spin system. The net result of the atom-field interaction is a type of coherent positive feedback that amplifies the values of selected spin observables. An effective equation of motion for the atomic system is presented, and an approximate 2-parameter model of the dynamics is developed that should provide a viable approach to modeling even the extremely large spin systems, with N>>1 atoms, encountered under typical laboratory conditions. Combining the nonlinear dynamics that result f…
The spatial resolution of imaging magnetometers has benefited from scanning probe techniques. The requirement that the sample perturbs the scanning probe through a magnetic field external to its volume limits magnetometry to samples with pre-existing magnetization. We propose a magnetometer in which the perturbation is reversed: the probe's magnetic field generates a response of the sample, which acts back on the probe and changes its energy. For an NV$^-$ spin center in diamond this perturbation changes the fine-structure splitting of the spin ground state. Sensitive measurement techniques us…
We show that when the speed of control is bounded, there is a widely applicable minimal-time control problem for which a coherent feedback protocol is optimal, and is faster than all measurement-based feedback protocols, where the latter are defined in a strict sense. The superiority of the coherent protocol is due to the fact that it can exploit a geodesic path in Hilbert space, a path that measurement-based protocols cannot follow.
The ability to control and manipulate spins via electrical, magnetic and optical means has generated numerous applications in metrology and quantum information science in recent years. A promising alternative method for spin manipulation is the use of mechanical motion, where the oscillation of a mechanical resonator can be magnetically coupled to a spins magnetic dipole, which could enable scalable quantum information architectures9 and sensitive nanoscale magnetometry. To date, however, only population control of spins has been realized via classical motion of a mechanical resonator. Here, w…
Coherent feedback is a non-measurement based, hence a back-action free, method of control for quantum systems. A typical application of this control scheme is squeezing enhancement, a purely non-classical effect in quantum optics. In this paper we report its first experimental demonstration that well agrees with the theory taking into account time delays and losses in the coherent feedback loop. The results clarify both the benefit and the limitation of coherent feedback control in a practical situation.
We model the cooling of open optical and optomechanical resonators via optical feedback in the Linear Quadratic Gaussian setting of stochastic control theory. We show that coherent feedback control schemes, in which the resonator is embedded in an interferometer to achieve all-optical feedback, can outperform the best possible measurement-based schemes in the quantum regime of low steady-state excitation number. Such performance gains are attributed to the coherent controller's ability to process non-commuting output field quadratures simultaneously without loss of fidelity, and may provide im…
We investigate a coherent feedback squeezer that uses quantum coherent feedback (measurement-free) control. Our squeezer is simple, easy to implement, robust to the gain fluctuation, and broadband compared to the existing squeezers because of the negative coherent feedback configuration. We conduct a feasibility study that looks at the stability conditions for a feedback system to optimize the designs of real optical devices. The feasibility study gives fabrication tolerance necessary for designing and realizing the actual device. Our formalism for the stability analysis is not limited to opti…
A new technique is demonstrated for carrying out exact positive-P phase-space simulations of the coherent Ising machine quantum computer. By suitable design of the coupling matrix, general hard optimization problems can be solved. Here, computational quantum simulations of a feedback type of photonic parametric network are carried out, which is the implementation of the coherent Ising machine. Results for success rates are obtained using this scalable phase-space algorithm for quantum simulations of quantum feedback devices.
Measurement feedback is a versatile and powerful tool, although its performance is limited by several practical imperfections resulting from classical components. This paper shows that, for some typical quantum feedback control problems for state preparation (stabilization of a qubit or a qutrit, spin squeezing, and Fock state generation), the classical feedback operation can be replaced by a fully quantum one such that the state autonomously dissipates into the target or a state close to the target. The main common feature of the proposed quantum operation, which is called coherent feedback, …
Quantum coherent feedback control is a measurement-free control method fully preserving quantum coherence. In this paper we show how time-delayed quantum coherent feedback can be used to control the degree of squeezing in the output field of a cavity containing a degenerate parametric oscillator. We focus on the specific situation of Pyragas-type feedback control where time-delayed signals are fed back directly into the quantum system. Our results show how time-delayed feedback can enhance or decrease the degree of squeezing as a function of time delay and feedback strength.
I present an experimental realization of a coherent-feedback control system that was recently proposed for testing basic principles of linear quantum stochastic control theory [M. R. James, H. I. Nurdin and I. R. Petersen, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (2008), arXiv:quant-ph/0703150v2]. For a dynamical plant consisting of an optical ring-resonator, I demonstrate ~ 7 dB broadband disturbance rejection of injected laser signals via all-optical feedback with a tailored dynamic compensator. Comparison of the results with a transfer function model pinpoints critical parameters…
The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamics of a quantum coherent feedback network composed of two two-level systems (qubits) driven by two counter-propagating photons, one in each input channel. The coherent feedback network enhances the nonlinear photon-photon interaction inside the feedback loop. By means of quantum stochastic calculus and the input-output framework, the analytic form of the steady-state output two-photon state is derived. Based on the analytic form, the applications on the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interferometer and marginally stable single-photon devices using this coh…
It is well known that a minimum error quantum measurement for arbitrary binary optical coherent states can be realized by a receiver that comprises interfering with a coherent reference light, photon counting, and feedback control. We show that, for ternary optical coherent states, a minimum error measurement cannot always be realized by such a receiver. The problem of finding an upper bound on the maximum success probability of such a receiver can be formulated as a convex programming. We derive its dual problem and numerically find the upper bound. At least for ternary phase-shift keyed cohe…
Detection of AC magnetic fields at the nanoscale is critical in applications ranging from fundamental physics to materials science. Isolated quantum spin defects, such as the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond, can achieve the desired spatial resolution with high sensitivity. Still, vector AC magnetometry currently relies on using different orientations of an ensemble of sensors, with degraded spatial resolution, and a protocol based on a single NV is lacking. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a protocol that exploits a single NV to reconstruct the vectorial components of an AC ma…
It is well-known that some nonlinear phenomena such as strong photon blockade are hard to be observed in optomechanical system with current experimental technology. Here, we present a coherent feedback control strategy in which a linear cavity is coherently controlled by an optomechanical controller in a feedback manner. The coherent feedback loop transfers and enhances quantum nonlinearity from the controller to the controlled cavity, which makes it possible to observe strong nonlinear effects in either linear cavity or optomechanical cavity. More interestingly, we find that the strong photon…
This paper presents a non-Markovian coherent feedback scheme to control single quantum dot systems. The feedback loop is closed via a quantum tunneling junction between the natural source and drain baths of the quantum dot. The exact feedback-controlled non-Markovian Langevin equation is derived for describing the dynamics of the quantum dot. To deal with the nonlinear memory function in the Langevin equation, we analyze the Green's function-based root locus, from which we show that the decoherence of the quantum dot can be suppressed via increasing the feedback coupling strength. This effecti…
We study the cooling performance of optical-feedback controllers for open optical and mechanical resonators in the Linear Quadratic Gaussian setting of stochastic control theory. We utilize analysis and numerical optimization of closed-loop models based on quantum stochastic differential equations to show that coherent control schemes, where we embed the resonator in an interferometer to achieve all-optical feedback, can outperform optimal measurement-based feedback control schemes in the quantum regime of low steady-state excitation number. These performance gains are attributed to the cohere…
We study the sensitive detection of a weak static magnetic field via Faraday rotation induced by an ensemble of spins in a bimodal degenerate microwave cavity. We determine the limit of the resolution for the sensitivity of the magnetometry achieved using either single-photon or multiphoton inputs. For the case of a microwave cavity containing an ensemble of Nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond, we obtain a magnetometry sensitivity exceeding $0.5~\text{\nano\tesla}/\sqrt{\text{\hertz}}$, utilizing a single photon probe field, while for a multiphoton input we achieve a sensitivity about $1 \text…
A particularly simple setup is introduced to study the influence of time-delayed coherent feedback on the optical squeezing properties of the degenerate parametric amplifier (DPA). The possibility for significantly enhanced squeezing is demonstrated both on resonance and in sidebands, at a reduced pump power compared to the case without feedback. We study a broad range of operating parameters and their influence on the characteristic squeezing of the system. A classical analysis of the system dynamics reveals the connection between the feedback-modified landscape of stability and enhanced sque…
We compare the performance of continuous coherent feedback, implemented using an ideal single-qubit controller, to that of continuous measurement-based feedback for the task of controlling the state of a single qubit. Here the basic dynamical resource is the ability to couple the system to a traveling-wave field (for example, a transmission line) via a system observable, and the fundamental limitation is the maximum rate that is available for this coupling. We focus on the question of the best achievable control given ideal controllers. To obtain a fair comparison we acknowledge that the ampli…
We develop a general framework to describe interferometric coherent feedback loops and prove that, under any such scheme, the steady-state squeezing of a bosonic mode subject to a rotating wave coupling with a white noise environment and to any quadratic Hamiltonian must abide by a noise-dependent bound that reduces to the 3dB limit at zero temperature. Such a finding is contrasted, at fixed dynamical parameters, with the performance of homodyne continuous monitoring of the output modes. The latter allows one to beat coherent feedback and the 3dB limit under certain dynamical conditions, which…
Recently, the coherent Ising machine (CIM) as a degenerate optical parametric oscillator (DOPO) network has been researched to solve Ising combinatorial optimization problems. We formulate a theoretical model for the CIM with discrete-time measurement feedback processes, and perform numerical simulations for the simplest network, composed of two degenerate optical parametric oscillator pulses with the anti-ferromagnetic mutual coupling. We evaluate the extent to which quantum coherence exists during the optimization process.
Strong coupling between the electronic states of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) such as MoS$_2$, MoSe$_2$, WS$_2$, or WSe$_2$, and a two-dimensional (2D) photonic cavity gives rise to several exotic effects. The Dirac type Hamiltonian for a 2D gapped semiconductor with large spin-orbit coupling facilitates pure Jaynes-Cummings type coupling in the presence of a single mode electric field. The presence of an additional circularly polarized beam of light gives rise to valley and spin dependent cavity-QED properties. The cavity causes the TMDC monolayer to act as an on-chip coh…
We propose a class of preparation schemes for orbital angular momentum and polarisation qubits carried by single photons or classical states of light based on coherent feedback control by an ancillary degree of freedom of light. The preparation methods use linear optics and include the transcription of an arbitrary polarisation state onto a two-level OAM system (swap) for arbitrary OAM values plus/minus "l" within a light beam, i.e. without spatial interferometer. The preparations can be carried out with unit efficiency independent from the potentially unknown initial state of the system. More…
We consider a wide family of optical coherent feedback loops acting on an optomechanical system operating in the linearized regime. We assess the efficacy of such loops in improving key operations, such as cooling, steady-state squeezing and entanglement, as well as optical to mechanical state transfer. We find that mechanical sideband cooling can be enhanced through passive, interferometric coherent feedback, achieving lower steady-state occupancies and considerably speeding up the cooling process; we also quantify the detrimental effect of non-zero delay times on the cooling performance. Ste…
We describe an efficient approach to modelling cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) with a time-delayed coherent feedback using quantum trajectory simulations. An analytical set of equations is derived to exploit the advantages of trajectories in the presence of the non-Markovian dynamics, where adjustments to the standard stochastic dynamics are discussed. In the weak excitation regime, we first verify that our approach recovers known results obtained with other simulation methods and demonstrate how a coherent feedback loop can increase the photon lifetime in typical cavity-QED systems. We t…
We address a scheme to enhance the quantum correlations in cavity opto-magnomechanical system by using the coherent feedback loop in the presence of magnon squeezing. The proposed coherent feedback-control allows a significant enhancement of the entanglement of three bipartite subsystems, i.e., photon-phonon, photon-magnon and phonon-magnon. We also study the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering and one-way steering in the presence of thermal effects without imposing additional conditions of asymmetric losses or noises in the subsystems. Furthermore, we investigate the sensitiveness of the scheme …
We study the scattering of photons propagating in a semi-infinite waveguide terminated by a mirror and interacting with a quantum emitter. This paradigm constitutes an example of coherent quantum feedback, where light emitted towards the mirror gets redirected back to the emitter. We derive an analytical solution for the scattering of two-photon states, which is based on an exact resummation of the perturbative expansion of the scattering matrix, in a regime where the time delay of the coherent feedback is comparable to the timescale of the quantum emitter's dynamics. We compare the results wi…
We present an elementary derivation and generalisation of a recently reported method of simulating feedback in open quantum systems. We use our generalised method to simulate systems with multiple delays, as well as cascaded systems with delayed backscatter. In addition, we derive a generalisation of the quantum regression formula that applies to systems with delayed feedback, and show how to use the formula to compute two-time correlation functions of the system as well as output field properties. Finally, we show that delayed coherent feedback can be simulated as a quantum teleportation prot…
Readout of the state of a superconducting qubit by homodyne detection of the output signal from a dispersively coupled microwave resonator is a common technique in circuit quantum electrodynamics, and is often claimed to be quantum non-demolition (QND) up to the same order of approximation as in the dispersive approximation. However, in this work we show that only in the limit of infinite measurement time is this protocol QND, as the formation of a dressed coherent state in the qubit-cavity system applies an effective rotation to the qubit state. We show how this rotation can be corrected by a…
We propose a method to decouple the nanomechanical resonator in optomechanical systems from the environmental noise by introducing a chaotic coherent feedback loop. We find that the chaotic controller in the feedback loop can modulate the dynamics of the controlled optomechanical system and induce a broadband response of the mechanical mode. This broadband response of the mechanical mode will cut off the coupling between the mechanical mode and the environment and thus suppress the environmental noise of the mechanical modes. As an application, we use the protected optomechanical system to act…
Coherent feedback control (CFC) of multipartite optical entangled states produced by a non-degenerate optical parametric amplifier is theoretically studied. The features of the quantum correlations of amplitude and phase quadratures among more than two entangled optical modes can be controlled by tuning the transmissivity of the optical beam splitter in CFC loop. The physical conditions to enhance continuous variable multipartite entanglement of optical fields utilizing CFC loop are obtained. The numeric calculations based on feasible physical parameters of realistic systems provide direct ref…
The visibility of the two-photon interference in the Franson interferometer serves as a measure of the energy-time entanglement of the photons. We propose to control the visibility of the interference in the second-order coherence function by implementing a coherent time-delayed feedback mechanism. Simulating the non-Markovian dynamics within the matrix product state framework, we find that the visibility for two photons emitted from a three-level system (3LS) in ladder configuration can be enhanced significantly for a wide range of parameters by slowing down the decay of the upper level of th…
We propose a scheme to improve magnon-photon-phonon entanglement in cavity magnomechanics using coherent feedback loop. In addition, we prove that the steady state and dynamical state of the system is a genuine tripartite entanglement state. We use the logarithmic negativity as the witness of quantum correlations to quantify the entanglement of all bipartite subsystem, and genuine tripartite entanglement via the nonzero minimum residual contangle, in steady and dynamical regime. We consider the feasible experiment parameters to realize the tripartite entanglement. We show that the entanglement…
We propose a new type of sensor, which uses diamond containing the optically active nitrogen-vacancy (NV$^-$) centres as a laser medium. The magnetometer can be operated at room-temperature and generates light that can be readily fibre coupled, thereby permitting use in industrial applications and remote sensing. By combining laser pumping with a radio-frequency Rabi-drive field, an external magnetic field changes the fluorescence of the NV$^-$ centres. We use this change in fluorescence level to push the laser above threshold, turning it on with an intensity controlled by the external magneti…
The purpose of this paper is to study the mixed linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) and $H_\infty$ optimal control problem for linear quantum stochastic systems, where the controller itself is also a quantum system, often referred to as "coherent feedback controller". A lower bound of the LQG control is proved. Then two different methods, rank constrained linear matrix inequality (LMI) method and genetic algorithm are proposed for controller design. A passive system (cavity) and a non-passive one (degenerate parametric amplifier, DPA) demonstrate the effectiveness of these two proposed algorithms.
We investigate the entanglement dynamics of two two-level emitters (qubits) mediated by a semiinfinite, one-dimensional (1D) photonic waveguide. The coupling of each qubit to the waveguide is chiral, which depends on the propagation direction of light. The finite end of the waveguide is terminated by a perfect mirror, such that coherent quantum feedback is introduced to the system. We show that the chirally generated entanglement between the qubits can be preserved by controlling the time delay of the feedback. Moreover, when the time delay is negligible, the qubit-qubit reduced system evolves…
The theory of quantum feedback networks has recently been developed with the aim of showing how quantum input-output components may be connected together so as to control, stabilize or enhance the performance of one of the subcomponents. In this paper we show how the degree to which an idealized component (a degenerate parametric amplifier in the strong-coupling regime) can squeeze input fields may be enhanced by placing the component in-loop in a simple feedback mechanism involving a beam splitter. We study the spectral properties of output fields, placing particular emphasis on the elastic a…
