We present a theory for the estimation of a scalar or a vector magnetic field by its influence on an ensemble of trapped spin polarized atoms. The atoms interact off-resonantly with a continuous laser field, and the measurement of the polarization rotation of the probe light, induced by the dispersive atom-light coupling, leads to spin-squeezing of the atomic sample which enables an estimate of the magnetic field which is more precise than that expected from standard counting statistics. For polarized light and polarized atoms, a description of the non-classical components of the collective spin angular momentum for the atoms and the collective Stokes vectors of the light-field in terms of effective gaussian position and momentum variables is practically exact. The gaussian formalism describes the dynamics of the system very effectively and accounts explicitly for the back-action on the atoms due to measurement and for the estimate of the magnetic field. Multi-component magnetic fields are estimated by the measurement of suitably chosen atomic observables and precision and efficiency is gained by dividing the atomic gas in two or more samples which are entangled by the dispersive atom-light interaction.
The shot-noise detection limit in current high-precision atomic magnetometry is a manifestation of quantum fluctuations that scale as the square root of N in an ensemble of N particles. However, there is a general expectation that the reduced projection noise provided by conditional spin-squeezing could be exploited to surpass the conventional shot-noise limit. We show that continuous measurement coupled with quantum Kalman filtering provides an optimal procedure for magnetic detection limits that scale with 1/N, the Heisenberg squeezing limit. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of optim…
We present a theory for the estimation of a classical magnetic field by an atomic sample with a gaussian distribution of collective spin components. By incorporating the magnetic field and the probing laser field as quantum variables with gaussian distributions on equal footing with the atoms, we obtain a very versatile description which is readily adapted to include probing with squeezed light, dissipation and loss and additional measurement capabilities on the atomic system.
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 propose to employ a recurrent neural network to estimate a fluctuating magnetic field from continuous optical Faraday rotation measurement on an atomic ensemble. We show that an encoder-decoder architecture neural network can process measurement data and learn an accurate map between recorded signals and the time-dependent magnetic field. The performance of this method is comparable to Kalman filters while it is free of the theory assumptions that restrict their application to particular measurements and physical systems.
The quantum smoothing theory [Tsang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 250403 (2009); Phys. Rev. A, in press (e-print arXiv:0906.4133)] is extended to account for discrete jumps in the classical random process to be estimated, discrete variables in the quantum system, such as spin, angular momentum, and photon number, and Poissonian measurements, such as photon counting. The extended theory is used to model atomic magnetometers and study Hardy's paradox in phase space. In the phase-space picture of Hardy's proposed experiment, the negativity of the predictive Wigner distribution is identified as the culpr…
The precise measurement of a magnetic field is one of the most fundamental and important tasks in quantum metrology. Although extensive studies on quantum magnetometry have been carried out over past decades, the ultimate precision that can be achieved for the estimation of all three components of a magnetic field with entangled probe states under the parallel scheme remains unknown. Here we present the ultimate lower bound for the sum of arbitrarily weighted variances in the estimation of all three components of a magnetic field under the parallel scheme and show that this lower bound can be …
We report an optical inelastic-wave-mixing-enhanced atomic magnetometry technique that results in nT-level magnetic field detection at temperatures compatible with the human body without magnetic shielding, zero-field compensation, or high-frequency modulated phase-locking spectroscopy. Using Gaussian magnetic pulses that mimic the transient magnetic field produced by an action potential on a frog's nerve, we demonstrate more than 300,000-fold (550-fold) enhancement of magneto-optical rotation signal power spectral-density (power amplitude) over the conventional single-beam $Λ-$scheme atomic m…
We argue that it is possible in principle to reduce the uncertainty of an atomic magnetometer by double-passing a far-detuned laser field through the atomic sample as it undergoes Larmor precession. Numerical simulations of the quantum Fisher information suggest that, despite the lack of explicit multi-body coupling terms in the system's magnetic Hamiltonian, the parameter estimation uncertainty in such a physical setup scales better than the conventional Heisenberg uncertainty limit over a specified but arbitrary range of particle number N. Using the methods of quantum stochastic calculus and…
We study gradient magnetometry with an ensemble of atoms with arbitrary spin. We calculate precision bounds for estimating the gradient of the magnetic field based on the quantum Fisher information. For quantum states that are invariant under homogeneous magnetic fields, we need to measure a single observable to estimate the gradient. On the other hand, for states that are sensitive to homogeneous fields, a simultaneous measurement is needed, as the homogeneous field must also be estimated. We prove that for the cases studied in this paper, such a measurement is feasible. We present a method t…
Atomic magnetometry is one of the most sensitive ways to measure magnetic fields. We present a method for converting a naturally scalar atomic magnetometer into a vector magnetometer by exploiting the polarization dependence of hyperfine transitions in rubidium atoms. First, we fully determine the polarization ellipse of an applied microwave field using a self-calibrating method, i.e. a method in which the light-atom interaction provides everything required to know the field in an orthogonal laboratory frame. We then measure the direction of an applied static field using the polarization ellip…
We measure the sensitivity of a broadband atomic magnetometer using quantum non-demolition spin measurements. A cold, dipole-trapped sample of rubidium atoms provides a long-lived spin system in a non-magnetic environment, and is probed non-destructively by paramagnetic Faraday rotation. The calibration procedure employs a known reference state, the maximum-entropy or 'thermal' spin state and quantitative imaging-based atom counting to identify electronic, quantum, and technical noise in both the probe and spin system. The measurement achieves sensitivity 2.8 dB better than the projection nois…
Entanglement-enhanced optical magnetometry beyond the standard quantum limit
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen（尼尔斯·玻尔研究所，哥本哈根大学）；Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CNRS（朗之万研究所，巴黎高等物理化工学院，巴黎文理研究大学，索邦大学，巴黎西岱大学，法国国家科学研究中心）；INFN, Sezione di Padova（意大利国家核物理研究所，帕多瓦分部）
We demonstrate a light-shot-noise-limited magnetometer based on the Faraday effect in a hot unpolarized ensemble of rubidium atoms. By using off-resonant, polarization-squeezed probe light, we improve the sensitivity of the magnetometer by 3.2 dB. The technique could improve the sensitivity of the most advanced magnetometers and quantum nondemolition measurements of atomic spin ensembles.
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…
Level-crossing (LC) resonances in a buffer-gas-filled cesium vapor cell are studied under counterpropagating pump and probe light waves with opposite circular polarizations. The waves excite the D$_1$-line ground-state level $F_g$$=\,$$4$, while a transverse magnetic field (${\rm B}_x$$\perp$${\rm k}$) is scanned around zero to observe the resonance of electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA). It is shown that adding the pump light wave significantly improves the properties of the resonances in comparison with the commonly used scheme with a single light wave. As far as a small vapor cell …
Atomic magnetometers are highly sensitive detectors of magnetic fields that monitor the evolution of the macroscopic magnetic moment of atomic vapors, and opening new applications in biological, physical, and chemical science. However, the performance of atomic magnetometers is often limited by hidden systematic effects that may cause misdiagnosis for a variety of applications, e.g., in NMR and in biomagnetism. In this work, we uncover a hitherto unexplained interference effect in atomic magnetometers, which causes an important systematic effect to greatly deteriorate the accuracy of measuring…
We suggest a multiatom cavity quantum electrodynamics system for the weak magnetic field detection based on Faraday rotation with intracavity electromagnetically induced transparency. Our study demonstrates that the collective coupling between the cavity modes and the atomic ensemble can be used to improve the sensitivity. With single probe photon input, the sensitivity is inversely proportional to the number of atoms, and the sensitivity with 0.7(5)~nT/$\sqrt{\rm Hz}$ could be attained. With multiphoton measurement, our numerical calculations show that the magnetic field sensitivity can be im…
We propose an optical scheme to generate genuine entangled states of four atomic qubits in optical cavities using a single-photon source, beam splitters and single photon detectors. We show how to generate deterministically sixteen orthonormal and independent genuine entangled states of four atomic qubits. It is found that the sixteen genuine entangled states form a new type of representation of the four-atomic-qubit system, i.e., the genuine entangled-state representation. This representation brings new interesting insight onto better understanding multipartite entanglement.
We present a physical scheme for entanglement concentration of unknown atomic entangled states via cavity decay. In the scheme, the atomic state is used as stationary qubit and photonic state as flying qubit, and a close maximally entangled state can be obtained from pairs of partially entangled states probabilistically.
Introducing classical fields, we can transfer entanglement completely from discrete qubits into entangled coherent state. The entanglement also can be retrieved from the continuous-variable state of the cavities to the atomic qubits. Via postselection measure, atomic entangled state and entangled coherent state can be mutual transformed fully.
The generation and storage of entangled photons play important roles in quantum information technique. Spontaneous Raman scattering (SRS) in atomic ensembles provides a promising method to generate entangled photons capable of storage. In the past experiments, a spin-wave-photon entangled state is produced via SRS in an atomic ensemble, with which a pair of entangled photons is obtained. Here, we report a scheme of simultaneously generating two spin-wave-photon entangled states in an atomic ensemble by collecting Stokes photons at two different directions. Based on the obtained two atom-photon…
Quantum sensors outperform their classical counterparts in their estimation precision, given the same amount of resources. So far, quantum-enhanced sensitivity has been achieved by exploiting the superposition principle. This enhancement has been obtained for particular forms of entangled states, adaptive measurement basis change, critical many-body systems, and steady-state of periodically driven systems. Here, we introduce a different approach to obtain quantum-enhanced sensitivity in a many-body probe through utilizing the nature of quantum measurement and its subsequent wave-function colla…
We study experimentally the fundamental limits of sensitivity of an atomic radio-frequency magnetometer. First we apply an optimal sequence of state preparation, evolution, and the back-action evading measurement to achieve a nearly projection noise limited sensitivity. We furthermore experimentally demonstrate that Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) entanglement of atoms generated by a measurement enhances the sensitivity to pulsed magnetic fields. We demonstrate this quantum limited sensing in a magnetometer utilizing a truly macroscopic ensemble of 1.5*10^12 atoms which allows us to achieve sub-…
In this paper, we propose a novel scheme that can generate two-atom maximally entangled states from pure product states and mixed states using linear optics. Because the scheme can generate pure maximally entangled states from mixed states, we denote it as purification-like generation scheme.
Quantum sensors typically translate external fields into a periodic response whose frequency is then determined by analyses performed in Fourier space. This allows for a linear inference of the parameters that characterize external signals. In practice, however, quantum sensors are able to detect fields only in a narrow range of amplitudes and frequencies. A departure from this range, as well as the presence of significant noise sources and short detection times, lead to a loss of the linear relationship between the response of the sensor and the target field, thus limiting the working regime …
A protocol is proposed to generate atomic entangled states in a cavity QED system. It utilizes Raman transitions or stimulated Raman adiabatic passages between two systems to entangle the ground states of two three-state $Λ$-type atoms trapped in a single mode cavity. It does not need the measurements on cavity field nor atomic detection and can be implemented in a deterministic fashion. Since the present protocol is insensitive to both cavity decay and atomic spontaneous emission, the produced entangled states may have some interesting applications in quantum information processing.
A major challenge in quantum metrology is the generation of entangled states with macroscopic atom number. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that atomic squeezing generated via non-linear dynamics in Bose Einstein condensates, combined with suitable trap geometries, allows scaling to large ensemble sizes. We achieve a suppression of fluctuations by 5.3(5) dB for 12300 particles, which implies that similar squeezing can be achieved for more than 10$^7$ atoms. With this resource, we demonstrate quantum-enhanced magnetometry by swapping the squeezed state to magnetically sensitive hyperfine lev…
We investigate a scheme for implementing quantum dense coding via atomic ensembles, where prior distribution of the quantum entangled state is not needed. Our scheme also combines another two distinct advantages: atomic ensembles qubits with long coherent time serve as memory qubits and phtonic qubit as flying qubit. Thus our suggestion may offer a simple and easy way of demonstrating quantum dense coding experimentally via atomic ensembles.
In this paper we propose a scheme for partially teleporting entangled atomic states. Our scheme can be implemented using only four two-level atoms interacting either resonantly or off-resonantly with a single cavity-QED. The estimative of losses occurring during this partial teleportation process is accomplished through the phenomenological operator approach technique.
A method for producing entangled squeezed states (ESSs) for atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) is proposed by using a BEC with three internal states and two classical laser beams. We show that it is possible to generate two-state and multi-state ESSs under certain circumstances.
We propose a protocol of the long-distance atomic state teleportation via cavity decay, which allows for high-fidelity teleportation even with currently available optical cavities. The protocol is based on the scheme proposed by Bose \emph{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\textbf{83}}, 5158 (1999)] but with one important modification: it employs non-maximally-entangled states instead of maximally entangled states.
We analyze the effect of realistic noise sources for an atomic clock consisting of a local oscillator that is actively locked to a spin-squeezed (entangled) ensemble of $N$ atoms. We show that the use of entangled states can lead to an improvement of the long-term stability of the clock when the measurement is limited by decoherence associated with instability of the local oscillator combined with fluctuations in the atomic ensemble's Bloch vector. Atomic states with a moderate degree of entanglement yield the maximal clock stability, resulting in an improvement that scales as $N^{1/6}$ compar…
Spin Correlations in Recirculating Multipass Alkali Cells for Advancing Quantum Magnetometry
Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge（剑桥大学卡文迪什实验室）；Quantum Innovation Centre (Q.InC), Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR)（新加坡科技研究局量子创新中心）
We propose a scheme to deterministically generate atomic two-dimensional and three-dimensional entangled states by passing two 87Rb atoms through a high-Q bi-mode cavity alternately. The scheme is insensitive to atomic spontaneous decay because of large atom-cavity detuning, the influence of cavity decay is also discussed. Our strictly numerical simulation shows our proposal is good enough to demonstrate the generation of atomic entanglement with high fidelity and within the current experimental technologies.
In this paper, we present a scheme to generate an entangled coherent state by considering a three-level Λ- type atom interacting with a two-mode cavity driven by classical fields. The two-mode entangled coherent state can be obtained under large detuning conditions. Considering the cavity decay, an analytical solution is deduced.
We propose and analyze a new method to produce single and entangled photons which does not require cavities. It relies on the collective enhancement of light emission as a consequence of the presence of entanglement in atomic ensembles. Light emission is triggered by a laser pulse, and therefore our scheme is deterministic. Furthermore, it allows one to produce a variety of photonic entangled states by first preparing certain atomic states using simple sequences of quantum gates. We analyze the feasibility of our scheme, and particularize it to: ions in linear traps, atoms in optical lattices,…
We propose schemes to prepare atomic entangled states in a bi-mode cavity via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) and fractional stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (f-STIRAP) tech- niques. According to the simulation results, our schemes keep the cavity modes almost unexcited and the atomic excited states are nearly unpopulated during the whole process. The simulation also shows that the error probability is very small.
We demonstrate sensing of inhomogeneous dc magnetic fields by employing entangled trapped ions, which are shuttled in a segmented Paul trap. As \textit{sensor states}, we use Bell states of the type $\left|\uparrow\downarrow\right>+\text{e}^{\text{i}φ}\left|\downarrow\uparrow\right>$ encoded in two $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ions stored at different locations. Due to the linear Zeeman effect, the relative phase $φ$ serves to measure the magnetic field difference between the constituent locations, while common-mode fluctuations are rejected. Consecutive measurements on sensor states encoded in the $\text{S}…
We propose a scheme to teleport an entangled state of two $Λ$-type three-level atoms via photons. The teleportation protocol involves the local redundant encoding protecting the initial entangled state and allowing for repeating the detection until quantum information transfer is successful. We also show how to manipulate a state of many $Λ$-type atoms trapped in a cavity.
We present a proposal for storing and retrieving a continuous-variable quadripartite polarization-entangled cluster state, using macroscopic atomic ensembles in a magnetic field. The Larmor precession of the atomic spins leads to a symmetry between the atomic canonical operators. In this scheme, each of the four spatially separated pulses passes twice through the respective ensemble in order to map the polarization-entangled cluster state onto the long-lived atomic ensembles. The stored state can then be retrieved by another four read-out pulses, each crossing the respective ensemble twice. By…
The ability of parameter recently proposed by Sorensen et al. (Nature, 409, 63 (2001)) to characterize entanglement or inseparability is investigated for a system of two two-level atoms interacting with a single mode of radiation field. For comparison we employ the necessary and sufficient criterion of Peres and Horodecki for inseparability of bipartite states. We show that for diagonal atomic density matrix the parameter of Sorensen et al. fails to show entangled nature of collective atomic state whereas same state is inseparable in accordance with Peres-Horodecki criterion.
We describe a new method of coherent optical control of internal dynamics of atomic collisions by means of two correlated light beams having entangled polarizations. We show that if excitation of a colliding pair of atoms is by two photons having entangled polarizations, it is possible to redirect the output fragments of the collision into certain channels with a selected type of internal transition symmetry. The transition symmetry is defined in the body-fixed coordinate frame which has random and originally unknown orientation in space.
It was shown in Ref.[Phys.Rev.A 77,045802(2008)] that the dynamics of a control atom and an atomic sample interacting dispersively with a cavity can be discribed by the Jaynes-Cummings model and the collective mode of the atomic sample can be analogous with a bosonic mode. Here, by analogizing the behaviour of the atomic sample with the one of the cavity, we propose a scheme to generate cluster states of atomic ensembles by Cavity QED.
Experimentally feasible scheme for teleportation of atomic entangled state via entanglement swapping is proposed in cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) without joint Bell-state measurement (BSM). In the teleportation processes the interaction between atoms and a single-mode nonresonant cavity with the assistance of a strong classical driving field substitute the joint measurements. The discussion of the scheme indicates that it can be realized by current technologies.
Learning Unified Control of Intrinsic Nonlinear Spin Dynamics in Atomic Qudits for Magnetometry
College of Physics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics（南京航空航天大学物理学院）；China Mobile (Suzhou) Software Technology Co., Ltd.（中国移动（苏州）软件技术有限公司）；Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics（上海光学精密机械研究所）；Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院）；Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Sensing（航空航天信息感知重点实验室）
Continuously monitored atomic spin-ensembles allow, in principle, for real-time sensing of external magnetic fields beyond classical limits. Within the linear-Gaussian regime, thanks to the phenomenon of measurement-induced spin-squeezing, they attain a quantum-enhanced scaling of sensitivity both as a function of time, $t$, and the number of atoms involved, $N$. In our work, we rigorously study how such conclusions based on Kalman filtering methods change when inevitable imperfections are taken into account: in the form of collective noise, as well as stochastic fluctuations of the field in t…
We report an experimental realization of a narrow-band polarization-entangled photon source with a linewidth of 9.6 MHz through cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion. This linewidth is comparable to the typical linewidth of atomic ensemble based quantum memories. Single-mode output is realized by setting a reasonable cavity length difference between different polarizations, using of temperature controlled etalons and actively stabilizing the cavity. The entangled property is characterized with quantum state tomography, giving a fidelity of 94% between our state and a maximally…
An entanglement concentration scheme for unknown atomic entanglement states is proposed via entanglement swapping in cavity QED. Because the interaction used here is a large-detuned one between two driven atoms and a quantized cavity mode, the effects of the cavity decay and thermal field have been eliminated. These advantages can warrant the experimental feasibility of the current scheme.
In this paper, we present a method to generate continuous-variable-type entangled states between photons and atoms in atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The proposed method involves an atomic BEC with three internal states, a weak quantized probe laser and a strong classical coupling laser, which form a three-level Lambda-shaped BEC system. We consider a situation where the BEC is in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with the coupling laser being much stronger than the probe laser. In this case, the upper and intermediate levels are unpopulated, so that their adiabatic elimina…
