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arXiv:2103.11612 · Physical Review Applied

Heisenberg-Limited Quantum Metrology Using Collective Dephasing

Shingo Kukita, Yuichiro Matsuzaki, Yasushi Kondo

Published Dec 10, 2021• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The goal of quantum metrology is the precise estimation of parameters using quantum properties such as entanglement. This estimation usually consists of three steps: state preparation, time evolution during which information of the parameters is encoded in the state, and readout of the state. Decoherence during the time evolution typically degrades the performance of quantum metrology and is considered to be one of the major obstacles to realizing entanglement-enhanced sensing. We show, however, that under suitable conditions, this decoherence can be exploited to improve the sensitivity. Assume that we have two axes, and our aim is to estimate the relative angle between them. Our results reveal that the use of Markovian collective dephasing to estimate the relative angle between the two directions affords Heisenberg-limited sensitivity. Moreover, our protocol based on Markovian collective dephasing is robust against environmental noise: it is possible to achieve the Heisenberg limit by applying the collective dephasing even under the effect of independent dephasing. Our counterintuitive proposal with the decoherence leads to alternative applications in quantum metrology.

DOI
10.1103/physrevapplied.16.064026

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The goal of quantum metrology is the precise estimation of parameters using quantum properties such as entanglement. This estimation usually consists of three steps: state preparation, time evolution during which information of the parameters is encoded in the state, and readout of the state. Decoherence during the time evolution typically degrades the performance of quantum metrology and is considered to be one of the major obstacles to realizing entanglement-enhanced sensing. We show, however, that under suitable conditions, this decoherence can be exploited to improve the sensitivity. Assume that we have two axes, and our aim is to estimate the relative angle between them. Our results reveal that the use of Markovian collective dephasing to estimate the relative angle between the two directions affords Heisenberg-limited sensitivity. Moreover, our protocol based on Markovian collective dephasing is robust against environmental noise: it is possible to achieve the Heisenberg limit by applying the collective dephasing even under the effect of independent dephasing. Our counterintuitive proposal with the decoherence leads to alternative applications in quantum metrology.
The Heisenberg limit is the superior precision available by entanglement sensors. However, entanglementis fragile against dephasing, and there is no known quantum metrology protocol that can achieve Heisenberg limited sensitivity with the presence of independent dephasing. Here, we show that the Heisenberg limit is attainable under the effect of independent dephasing under conditions where the probe qubits decohere due to both target fields and local environments. To detect the target fields, we exploit the entanglement properties to decay much faster than the classical states due to collective noise while most of the previous schemes use a coherent phase shift from the target fields. Actually, if the temporally fluctuating target fields behave as Markovian collective dephasing, we can estimate the collective dephasing rate with a sensitivity at the Heisenberg limit under the effect of independent dephasing. Our work opens the possibility for robust Heisenberg-limited metrology.
Quantum sensors have been shown to enable more precise measurements than classical sensors. By using entanglement and coherent evolution, the estimation error can be made to scale better in interrogation time, photon count, and other resources, achieving Heisenberg-limited scaling. However, environmental noise and hardware errors typically destroy the coherence of the sensitive quantum states. This motivates the use of fault-tolerant techniques to create more robust quantum sensing protocols. Such fault-tolerant quantum sensing approaches have been shown to enhance sensitivity for qubit systems, but many practical sensors require bosonic probes. In this paper, we propose a fault-tolerant protocol using bosons to estimate displacements in the presence of dephasing noise. We construct an optimal error-correcting code under a mean photon-number constraint. Controlled displacements couple the probe to a repetition-encoded qubit register, while repeated boson-parity measurements and resets remove probe noise without erasing the stored logical phase. Under circuit-level bit-flip noise, a distance-ddd code suppresses logical failures to order p(d+1)/2p^{(d+1)/2}p(d+1)/2. We show that, for a decay rate γAγ_AγA​, a total sensing time TTT and a mean photon number budget NNN, and for sufficiently small residual signals, the Fisher information scales as NT2NT^2NT2 over interrogation times of order γA−(d+1)/2γ_A^{-(d+1)/2}γA−(d+1)/2​. This is a significant improvement over the non-fault-tolerant approach that achieves Heisenberg scaling only for a total time O(γA−1)\mathcal O(γ_A^{-1})O(γA−1​).
Quantum effects in metrology can in principle enhance measurement precision from the so-called standard quantum limit to the Heisenberg limit. Further advancements in quantum metrology largely rely on innovative metrology protocols that can avoid a number of known obstacles, including the challenge of preparing entangled states with sufficient fidelity, the readout noise in measuring highly entangled states, and no-go theorems for quantum metrology under noisy environments. In this Letter, exploiting some peculiar but experimentally feasible dynamical features of a collection of spins with all-to-all time-periodic interactions, we propose a metrology protocol that can circumvent all three mentioned obstacles and yet still make good use of time as a resource for metrology. Specifically, by mapping the dynamics of such a periodically driven spin system to that of a paradigm of quantum chaos but tuned to some high-order quantum resonance, it is shown that a simple SU(2) coherent state can, after evolving to highly entangled states in the ensuing dynamics, be dynamically brought back to the same initial coherent state. The associated quantum Fisher information is found to exhibit quadratic scaling with both the number of spins and the duration of the metrology protocol. The achieved Heisenberg scaling can also largely survive in the presence of Markovian noise. Representing a previously unknown strategy for quantum metrology, the protocol proposed here can be tested on available experimental platforms.
Quantum sensors have the potential to outperform their classical counterparts. For classical sensing, the uncertainty of the estimation of the target fields decreases 1/T1/\sqrt{T}1/T​ with measurement time TTT. On the other hand, by using quantum resources, one can decrease the uncertainty with time to 1/T1/T1/T - the Heisenberg limit. However as quantum states are susceptible to dephasing, it has been not clear whether one can achieve the Heisenberg limit for a measurement time scaling longer than the coherence time of those states. Here, we propose a scheme that estimates the amplitude of globally applied fields with Heisenberg limited sensitivity in principle for an arbitrary time scale under the effect of dephasing. We use one way quantum computing based teleportation between qubits to prevent the correlation between the quantum state and its local environment from increasing, and have shown that such a teleportation protocol can suppress the local dephasing while the information from the target fields keeps growing. Our methods has the potential to realize a quantum sensor with a sensitivity far beyond that of any classical sensors.
Environmental noise can hinder the metrological capabilities of entangled states. While the use of entanglement allows for Heisenberg-limited resolution, the largest permitted by quantum mechanics, deviations from strictly unitary dynamics quickly restore the standard scaling dictated by the central limit theorem. Product and maximally entangled states become asymptotically equivalent when the noisy evolution is both local and strictly Markovian. However, temporal correlations in the noise have been shown to lift this equivalence while fully (spatially) correlated noise allows for the identification of decoherence-free subspaces. Here we analyze precision limits in the presence of noise with finite correlation length and show that there exist robust entangled state preparations which display persistent Heisenberg scaling despite the environmental decoherence, even for small correlation length. Our results emphasize the relevance of noise correlations in the study of quantum advantage and could be relevant beyond metrological applications.
Quantum precision enhancement is of fundamental importance for the development of advanced metrological optical experiments, such as gravitational wave detection and frequency calibration with atomic clocks. Precision in these experiments is strongly limited by the 1/√N shot noise factor with N being the number of probes (photons, atoms) employed in the experiment. Quantum theory provides tools to overcome the bound by using entangled probes. In an idealized scenario this gives rise to the Heisenberg scaling of precision 1/N. Here we show that when decoherence is taken into account, the maximal possible quantum enhancement in the asymptotic limit of infinite N amounts generically to a constant factor rather than quadratic improvement. We provide efficient and intuitive tools for deriving the bounds based on the geometry of quantum channels and semi-definite programming. We apply these tools to derive bounds for models of decoherence relevant for metrological applications including: depolarization, dephasing, spontaneous emission and photon loss. Quantum metrology employs the properties of quantum states to further enhance the accuracy of some of the most precise measurement schemes to date. Here, a method for estimating the upper bounds to achievable precision in quantum-enhanced metrology protocols in the presence of decoherence is presented.