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Single-Photon Detection Using Quantum Phase Transitions

Li‐Ping Yang, Zubin Jacob

Published Oct 13, 2019• 1 citation
OpenAlex

Abstract

The temporal dynamics of large quantum systems perturbed weakly by a single excitation can give rise to unique phenomena at the quantum phase boundaries. Here, we develop a time-dependent model to study the temporal dynamics of a single photon interacting with a defect within a large system of interacting spins. Our model can lead to a single-photon detector if the system of spins is engineered to simulate a first-order quantum phase transition (QPT). We show that the absorption of a single photon pulse by an engineered defect (i.e., a nitrogen-vacancy center) can nucleate a single shot quantum measurement. This concept of a single-shot detection event (click) is different from parameter estimation which requires repeated measurements. The crucial step of amplifying the weak quantum signal occurs by coupling the defect to a system of interacting spins biased close to a QPT point. The macroscopic spin-order change during the QPT generates an amplified signal, which can be read out by a classical device. Our work paves the way for studying the temporal dynamics of large quantum systems interacting with a single photon.

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The temporal dynamics of large quantum systems perturbed weakly by a single excitation can give rise to unique phenomena at the quantum phase boundaries. Here, we develop a time-dependent model to study the temporal dynamics of a single photon interacting with a defect within a large system of interacting spins. Our model can lead to a single-photon detector if the system of spins is engineered to simulate a first-order quantum phase transition (QPT). We show that the absorption of a single photon pulse by an engineered defect (i.e., a nitrogen-vacancy center) can nucleate a single shot quantum measurement. This concept of a single-shot detection event (click) is different from parameter estimation which requires repeated measurements. The crucial step of amplifying the weak quantum signal occurs by coupling the defect to a system of interacting spins biased close to a QPT point. The macroscopic spin-order change during the QPT generates an amplified signal, which can be read out by a classical device. Our work paves the way for studying the temporal dynamics of large quantum systems interacting with a single photon.
Abstract The temporal dynamics of large quantum systems perturbed weakly by a single excitation can give rise to unique phenomena at the quantum phase boundaries. Here, we develop a time-dependent model to study the temporal dynamics of a single photon interacting with a defect within a large system of interacting spin qubits (N > 100). Our model predicts a quantum resource, giant susceptibility, when the system of qubits is engineered to simulate a first-order quantum phase transition (QPT). We show that the absorption of a single-photon pulse by an engineered defect in the large qubit system can nucleate a single shot quantum measurement through spin noise read-out. This concept of a single-shot detection event (“click”) is different from parameter estimation, which requires repeated measurements. The crucial step of amplifying the weak quantum signal occurs by coupling the defect to a system of interacting qubits biased close to a QPT point. The macroscopic change in long-range order during the QPT generates amplified magnetic noise, which can be read out by a classical device. Our work paves the way for studying the temporal dynamics of large quantum systems interacting with a single-photon pulse.
We introduce a first-order quantum-phase-transition model, which exhibits giant sensitivity χ∝N2 at the critical point. Exploiting this effect, we propose a quantum critical detector (QCD) to amplify weak input signals. The time-dynamic QCD functions by triggering a first-order dynamical quantum phase transition in a system of spins with long-range interactions coupled to a bosonic mode. We numerically demonstrate features of the dynamical quantum phase transition, which leads to a time-dependent quantum gain. We also show the linear scaling with the spin number N in both the quantum gain and the corresponding signal-to-quantum noise ratio of this QCD. Our QCD can be a resource for metrology, weak signal amplification, and single photon detection.
) when biased at the critical point. We propose a model consisting of spins with long-range interactions coupled to a bosonic mode to describe the time-dynamics in the QCD. We numerically demonstrate dynamical features of the first order (discontinuous) quantum phase transition such as time-dependent quantum gain in a system with 80 interacting spins. We also show the linear scaling with the spin number N in both the quantum gain and the corresponding signal-to-quantum noise ratio during the time evolution of the device. Our work shows that engineering first order discontinuous quantum phase transitions can lead to a device application for metrology, weak signal amplification, and single photon detection.
The quantum critical detector (QCD), recently introduced for weak signal amplification [L.-P. Yang and Z. Jacob, Opt. Express 27, 10482 (2019)], functions by exploiting high sensitivity near the phase transition point of first-order quantum phase transitions (QPTs). We contrast the behavior of the first-order and the second-order quantum phase transitions in the detector. We find that the giant sensitivity, which can be utilized for quantum amplification, only exists in the first-order QPTs. We define two new magnetic order parameters to quantitatively characterize the first-order QPT of the interacting spins in the detector. We also introduce the Husimi Q-functions as a powerful tool to show the fundamental change in the ground-state wave function of the detector during the QPTs, especially the intrinsic dynamical change within the detector during a quantum critical amplification. We explicitly show the high figures of merit of the QCD via the quantum gain and the signal-to-quantum noise ratio. Specifically, we predict the existence of a universal first-order QPT in the interacting-spin system resulting from two competing ferromagnetic orders. Our results motivate new designs of weak signal detectors by engineering first-order QPTs, which are of fundamental significance in the search for new particles, quantum metrology, and information science.
Abstract The generation of entanglement between remote matter qubits has developed into a key capability for fundamental investigations as well as for emerging quantum technologies. In the single-photon, protocol entanglement is heralded by generation of qubit-photon entangled states and subsequent detection of a single photon behind a beam splitter. In this work we perform a detailed theoretical and experimental investigation of this protocol and its various sources of infidelity. We develop an extensive theoretical model and subsequently tailor it to our experimental setting, based on nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. Experimentally, we verify the model by generating remote states for varying phase and amplitudes of the initial qubit superposition states and varying optical phase difference of the photons arriving at the beam splitter. We show that a static frequency offset between the optical transitions of the qubits leads to an entangled state phase that depends on the photon detection time. We find that the implementation of a Charge-Resonance check on the nitrogen-vacancy center yields transform-limited linewidths. Moreover, we measure the probability of double optical excitation, a significant source of infidelity, as a function of the power of the excitation pulse. Finally, we find that imperfect optical excitation can lead to a detection-arm-dependent entangled state fidelity and rate. The conclusion presented here are not specific to the nitrogen-vacancy centers used to carry out the experiments, and are therefore readily applicable to other qubit platforms.