Continuous Real-Time Sensing with a Nitrogen Vacancy Center via Coherent Population Trapping

Abstract

We propose and theoretically analyze the use of coherent population trapping of a single diamond nitrogen vacancy (NV) center for continuous real-time sensing. The formation of the dark state in coherent population trapping prevents optical emissions from the NV center. Fluctuating magnetic fields, however, can kick the NV center out of the dark state, leading to a sequence of single-photon emissions. A time series of the photon counts detected can be used for magnetic field estimations, even when the average photon count per update time interval is much smaller than 1. For a theoretical demonstration, the nuclear spin bath in a diamond lattice is used as a model fluctuating magnetic environment. For fluctuations with known statistical properties, such as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, Bayesian inference-based estimators can lead to an estimation variance that approaches the classical Cramer-Rao lower bound and can provide dynamical information on a timescale that is comparable to the inverse of the average photon counting rate. Real-time sensing using coherent population trapping adds a new and powerful tool to the emerging technology of quantum sensing.

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• Entanglement-enhanced quantum metrology: from standard quantum limit to Heisenberg limit
• Real-time two-axis control of a spin qubit
• Noisy Coherent Population Trapping: Applications to Noise Estimation and Qubit State Preparation
• Recovery With Incomplete Knowledge: Fundamental Bounds on Real-Time Quantum Memories
• Quantum state-preparation control in noisy environment via most-likely paths
• Efficiency of optimal control for noisy spin qubits in diamond
• Photon counting statistics in the presence of spectral diffusion induced by nonequilibrium environmental fluctuations