Quantum nonlinear spectroscopy of single nuclear spins

Abstract

Nonlinear spectroscopy is widely used for studying physical systems. Conventional nonlinear optical spectroscopy and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which use classical probes such as electromagnetic waves, can only access certain types of correlations in a quantum system. The idea of quantum nonlinear spectroscopy was recently proposed to use quantum probes such as entangled photons to achieve sensitivities and resolutions beyond the classical limits. It is shown that quantum sensing can extract arbitrary types and orders of correlations in a quantum system by first quantum-entangling a sensor and the object and then measuring the sensor. Quantum sensing has been applied to achieve nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) of single atoms and the second-order correlation spectroscopy has been adopted to enhance the spectral resolution. However, quantum nonlinear spectroscopy (i.e., the measurement of higher-order correlations) of single nuclear spins is still elusive. Here we demonstrate the extraction of fourth-order correlations of single nuclear spins that cannot be measured in conventional nonlinear spectroscopy, using sequential weak measurement via an atomic quantum sensor, namely, a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. We show that the quantum nonlinear spectroscopy provides fingerprint features to identify different types of objects, such as Gaussian noises, random-phased AC fields, and quantum spins, which would be indistinguishable in second-order correlations. The measured fourth-order correlation unambiguously differentiates a single nuclear spin and a random-phased AC field. This work constitutes an initial step toward the application of higher-order correlations to quantum sensing, to examining the quantum foundation (by, e.g., higher-order Leggett-Garg inequality), and to studying quantum many-body physics.

arXiv comment23 pages and 4 figures

References in corpus (35)

• Quantum sensing
• Quantum-enhanced measurements: beating the standard quantum limit
• The nitrogen-vacancy colour centre in diamond
• Dynamical decoupling and noise spectroscopy with a superconducting flux qubit
• High-fidelity projective readout of a solid-state spin quantum register
• Sub-millihertz magnetic spectroscopy with a nanoscale quantum sensor
• Nonlinear optical signals and spectroscopy with quantum light
• Experimental violation of a Bell's inequality in time with weak measurement
• Detection and control of individual nuclear spins using a weakly coupled electron spin
• Dynamical decoupling noise spectroscopy
• Quantum sensing with arbitrary frequency resolution
• Robust dynamical decoupling for quantum computing and quantum memory
• On solving quantum many-body problems by experiment
• Sensing remote nuclear spins
• Spectroscopy of spontaneous spin noise as a probe of spin dynamics and magnetic resonance
• Sensing distant nuclear spins with a single electron spin
• Nuclear spin pair coherence in diamond for atomic scale magnetometry
• High-Resolution Correlation Spectroscopy of 13C Spins Near a Nitrogen-Vacancy Center in Diamond
• Rotating-frame relaxation as a noise spectrum analyzer of a superconducting qubit undergoing driven evolution
• Quantum many-body theory for electron spin decoherence in nanoscale nuclear spin baths
• The Theory of Spin Noise Spectroscopy: A Review
• Output spectrum of a detector measuring quantum oscillations
• High-resolution spectroscopy of single nuclear spins via sequential weak measurements
• Non-Gaussian noise spectroscopy with a superconducting qubit sensor
• Flux qubit noise spectroscopy using Rabi oscillations under strong driving conditions
• Signatures of quantum behavior in single-qubit weak measurements
• Application of optimal band-limited control protocols to quantum noise sensing
• Nonclassical time correlation functions in continuous quantum measurement
• Decay and recurrence of non-Gaussian correlations in a quantum many-body system
• Characterization of arbitrary-order correlations in quantum baths by weak measurement
• Quantum Fingerprints in Higher Order Correlators of a Spin Qubit
• Higher Order Spin Noise Statistics
• Dynamics revealed by correlations of time-distributed weak measurements of a single spin
• Quantum spectroscopy of single spins assisted by a classical clock
• Classical-noise-free sensing based on quantum correlation measurement

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Review: Quantum Metrology and Sensing with Many-Body Systems
• Anomalous noise spectra in a spin-exchange-relaxation-free alkali-metal vapor
• Computing n-time correlation functions without ancilla qubits
• Quantum illumination with noisy probes: Conditional advantages of non-Gaussianity
• Making Every Photon Count: A Quantum Polyspectra Approach to the Dynamics of Blinking Quantum Emitters at Low Photon Rates Without Binning
• Unlocking Heisenberg Sensitivity with Sequential Weak Measurement Preparation