Amplification of a weak signal in a medium located in a magnetic field

O. I. Fisun

Jingyan Xu, Raphael Kircher, Min Jiang +3 more

Detecting weak magnetic fields at hertz frequencies is central to biomagnetism, geophysical sensing, and searches for new physics, yet it remains challenging because of technical systematics and environmental noise. Here, we realize a continuously operating molecular magnetic amplifier. Signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE) parahydrogen-based hyperpolarization maintains non-equilibrium spin order at zero field, turning scalar-coupled nuclear spins in liquid state molecules into an active, frequency-selective gain medium. Measurements of its complex magnetic susceptibility ($χ$) reveal an intrinsic response of $ | χ| \approx$ 10. By feeding the collectively generated magnetic field back to the spins below the threshold for self-sustained $J$-oscillation, we extend the effective spin coherence and cooperatively enhance the susceptibility up to $ | χ| \approx$ 80. Near threshold, this produces approximately fourfold amplification of a weak (20 pT) magnetic field at 3.37 Hz at the sensor location. These results establish hyperpolarized molecules as a tunable active magnetic medium for narrowband quantum sensing and precision measurement.

E. A. Gazazyan, G. G. Grigoryan, A. Papoyan

Amplification of a weak circularly polarized light signal in a multilevel atomic medium excited by a strong linearly polarized resonant radiation is studied. A strong optical pumping may lead to the population inversion between magnetic sublevels of hyperfine components of the ground and excited states. Solution to the self-consistent system of density matrix equations and Maxwell equations for propagation of the weak signal allows analyzing optimum conditions of amplification.

Vladimir Evgen'evich Zakharov

Jian Feng Dong, He, W. T., Zou, S. D. +2 more

The enhancement of weak signals and the detection of hypothetical particles, facilitated by quantum amplification, are crucial for advancing fundamental physics and its practical applications. Recently, it was experimentally observed that magnetic field can be amplified by using nuclear spins under Markovian noise, [H. Su, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 191801 (2024)]. Here, we theoretically propose amplifying the magnetic-field signal by using nuclear spins by the quantum Zeno effect (QZE). Under identical conditions, we demonstrate that compared to the Markovian case the amplification of the weak magnetic field can be enhanced by a factor about $e^{1/2}$ under a Gaussian noise. Moreover, through numerical simulations we determine the optimal experimental parameters for amplification conditions. This work shows that the combination of the QZE and spin amplification effectively enhances the amplification of the weak magnetic field. Our findings may provide valuable guidance for the design of experiments on establishing new constraints of dark matter and exotic interactions in the near future.

Janusz Czub, Jan Fiutak, W. Miklaszewski