Floquet-engineered decoherence-resilient protocols for wideband sensing beyond the linear standard quantum limit
Abstract
A key advantage of quantum metrology is the ability to surpass the standard quantum limit for measurement precision through the use of non-classical states. However, there is typically little to no improvement in precision with the use of non-classical states for measurements whose duration exceeds the decoherence time of the underlying quantum states. Measurements aimed at the ultimate possible precision are thus performed almost exclusively with classical states and, therefore, are constrained by the standard quantum limit. Here, we demonstrate that by using the phenomenon of subharmonic excitation, in combination with a recently demonstrated technique of Raman excitation of a harmonic oscillator, the frequency of an electric field can be measured at a resolution below the standard quantum limit of the corresponding linear measurement. As the input states can be classical, this metrological gain persists to long timescales and improves the ultimate possible precision. While we demonstrate this technique using motional Raman subharmonic excitation of a single 40ca^+ ion through engineered Floquet states, this technique is expected to be extendable to other platforms, such as NV centers, solid-state qubits, and neutral atoms, where it can provide metrological gain for sensing across the radio frequency, microwave, and optical domains.