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arXiv:1608.00721 · Physical Review A

Quantum metrology including state preparation and readout times

Shane Dooley, William J. Munro, Kae Nemoto

Published Nov 15, 2016• 23 citations
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Abstract

There is growing belief that the next decade will see the emergence of sensing devices based on the laws of quantum physics that outperform some of our current sensing devices. For example, in frequency estimation, using a probe prepared in an entangled state can, in principle, lead to a precision gain compared to a probe prepared in a separable state. Even in the presence of some forms of decoherence, it has been shown that the precision gain can increase with the number of probe particles $N$. Usually, however, the entangled and separable state preparation and readout times are assumed to be negligible. We find that a probe in a maximally entangled (GHZ) state can give an advantage over a separable state only if the entangled state preparation and readout times are lower than a certain threshold. When the probe system suffers dephasing, this threshold is much lower (and more difficult to attain) than it is for an isolated probe. Further, we find that in realistic situations the maximally entangled probe gives a precision advantage only up to some finite number of probe particles ${N}_{\text{cutoff}}$ that is lower for a dephasing probe than it is for an isolated probe.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.94.052320

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There is growing belief that the next decade will see the emergence of sensing devices based on the laws of quantum physics that outperform some of our current sensing devices. For example, in frequency estimation, using a probe prepared in an entangled state can, in principle, lead to a precision gain compared to a probe prepared in a separable state. Even in the presence of some forms of decoherence, it has been shown that the precision gain can increase with the number of probe particles NNN. Usually, however, the entangled and separable state preparation and readout times are assumed to be negligible. We find that a probe in a maximally entangled (GHZ) state can give an advantage over a separable state only if the entangled state preparation and readout times are lower than a certain threshold. When the probe system suffers dephasing, this threshold is much lower (and more difficult to attain) than it is for an isolated probe. Further, we find that in realistic situations the maximally entangled probe gives a precision advantage only up to some finite number of probe particles Ncutoff{N}_{\text{cutoff}}Ncutoff​ that is lower for a dephasing probe than it is for an isolated probe.
There is growing belief that the next decade will see the emergence of sensing devices based on the laws of quantum physics that outperform some of our current sensing devices. For example, in frequency estimation, using a probe prepared in an entangled state can, in principle, lead to a precision gain compared to a probe prepared in a separable state. Even in the presence of some forms of decoherence, it has been shown that the precision gain can increase with the number of probe particles NNN. Usually, however, the entangled and separable state preparation and readout times are assumed to be negligible. We find that a probe in a maximally entangled (GHZ) state can give an advantage over a separable state only if the entangled state preparation and readout times are lower than a certain threshold. When the probe system suffers dephasing, this threshold is much lower (and more difficult to attain) than it is for an isolated probe. Further, we find that in realistic situations the maximally entangled probe gives a precision advantage only up to some finite number of probe particles Ncutoff{N}_{\text{cutoff}}Ncutoff​ that is lower for a dephasing probe than it is for an isolated probe.
It is now widely believed that in the near future quantum sensing devices will be realized to outperform some of our current sensing devices. As quantum metrology protocols are comprised of three stages: probe state preparation, sensing followed by readout, it is important that the time for all three steps are accounted when the performance is determined. Historically the time required for the first and last stages has usually been neglected, which could be unrealistic when entangled resources are used. Entangled resources lose their sensitivity in time under noise, and hence the sensing time with these resources is limited. To avoid this degradation of sensitivity, we could repeat the protocol to refresh the entanglement in the resources. However, as the process of the preparation and the readout of the entangled probe state costs us a certain period of time, we need to optimize the sensing protocol throughout the three stages. We find that an entangled state probe can give an advantage over separable ones only if the entangled state preparation and readout times are lower than a certain threshold and illustrate this result in an optical setting.
A quantum metrology protocol for parameter estimation is typically comprised of three stages: probe state preparation, sensing and then readout, where the time required for the first and last stages is usually neglected. In the present work we consider non-negligible state preparation and readout times, and the tradeoffs in sensitivity that come when a limited time resource T must be divided between the three stages. To investigate this, we focus on the problem of magnetic field sensing with spins in one-axis twisted or two-axis twisted states. We find that (accounting for the time necessary to prepare a twisted state) no advantage is gained unless the time T is sufficiently long or the twisting sufficiently strong. However, we also find that the limited time resource is used more effectively if we allow the twisting and the magnetic field to be applied concurrently, which possibly represents a more realistic sensing scenario. We extend this result into an optical setting by utilizing the exact correspondence between a spin system and a bosonic field mode as given by the Holstein-Primakoff transformation.
A quantum metrology protocol for parameter estimation is typically comprised of three stages: probe state preparation, sensing and then readout, where the time required for the first and last stages is usually neglected. In the present work we consider non-negligible state preparation and readout times, and the tradeoffs in sensitivity that come when a limited time resource τ must be divided between the three stages. To investigate this, we focus on the problem of magnetic field sensing with spins in one-axis twisted or two-axis twisted states. We find that (accounting for the time necessary to prepare a twisted state) no advantage is gained unless the time τ is sufficiently long or the twisting sufficiently strong. However, we also find that the limited time resource is used more effectively if we allow the twisting and the magnetic field to be applied concurrently, which possibly represents a more realistic sensing scenario. We extend this result into an optical setting by utilising the exact correspondence between a spin system and a bosonic field mode as given by the Holstein–Primakoff transformation.
We investigate the role of coarsened measurement reference, which originates from the coarsened reference time and basis, in quantum metrology. When the measurement is based on one common reference basis, the disadvantage of coarsened measurement can be removed by symmetry. Owing to the coarsened reference basis, the entangled state cannot perform better than the product state for a large number of probe particles in estimating the phase. Given a finite uncertainty of the coarsened reference basis, the optimal number of probe particles is obtained. Finally, we prove that the maximally entangled state always achieves better frequency precision in the case of non-Markovian dephasing than that in the case of Markovian dephasing. The product state is more resistant to the interference of the coarsened reference time than the entangled state.
We investigate strategies for reaching the ultimate limit on the precision of frequency estimation when the number of probes used in each run of the experiment is fixed. That limit is set by the quantum Cramér-Rao bound (QCRB), which predicts that the use of maximally entangled probes enhances the estimation precision, when compared with the use of independent probes. However, the bound is only achievable if the statistical model used in the estimation remains identifiable throughout the procedure. This in turn sets different limits on the maximal sensing time used in each run of the estimation procedure, when entangled and independent probes are used. When those constraints are taken into account, one can show that, when the total number of probes and the total duration of the estimation process are counted as fixed resources, the use of entangled probes is, in fact, disadvantageous when compared with the use of independent probes. In order to counteract the limitations imposed on the sensing time by the requirement of identifiability of the statistical model, we propose a time-adaptive strategy, in which the sensing time is adequately increased at each step of the estimation process, calculate an attainable error bound for the strategy, and discuss how to optimally choose its parameters in order to minimize that bound. We show that the proposed strategy leads to much better scaling of the estimation uncertainty with the total number of probes and the total sensing time than the traditional fixed-sensing-time strategy. We also show that, when the total number of probes and the total sensing time are counted as resources, independent probes and maximally entangled ones have now the same performance, in contrast to the nonadaptive strategy, where the use of independent is more advantageous than the use of maximally entangled ones. Published by the American Physical Society 2024