arXiv subjects

Jason Twamley

Publications and source records attributed to Jason Twamley.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Microwave-Free $^{13}$C Hyperpolarization of Diamond Particles Enabled by Magic Angle Spinning and NV Centers

Nuclear hyperpolarization from optically pumped color centers in solids offers an alternative to conventional microwave-driven dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). Diamond can host the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center, whose ground spin state can be readily polarized by light at room temperature, making diamond a candidate platform for nuclear hyperpolarization. We report $^{13}{\rm C}$ nuclear hyperpolarization in randomly oriented diamond particles with sizes ranging from 0.2 to 2 $\mu$m, both at natural $^{13}{\rm C}$ abundance (1.1 %) and at 20 % isotopic enrichment, at magnetic fields of 7.1 T and 9.4 T. The protocol combines optical illumination with magic angle spinning (MAS) and does not require microwave irradiation. By investigating the nuclear polarization as a function of the MAS frequency between 0 and 6 kHz at the magnetic field of 7.1 T, we find maximum light-induced polarization enhancements of $280$-fold for the isotopically enriched sample and $411$-fold for the natural abundance sample. Under continuous illumination, steady-state absolute $^{13}{\rm C}$ polarization levels above 0.1 % are reached. A model involving optical pumping of NV centers and spin dynamics near level anticrossings (LACs) in three-spin clusters formed by NV, a substitutional nitrogen (P1) and $^{13}{\rm C}$ is used to describe these findings. The protocol strongly mitigates the effect of the anisotropy of the NV spin Hamiltonian, allowing more than $99.9\%$ of NV orientations to participate in the polarization transfer process. These results represent a first step toward transferring nuclear polarization from diamond particles to external nuclei, with potential applications in sensitive and high-resolution NMR at room temperature.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Generating two-mechanical mode entangled cat states, and steady-state entanglement, in cavity optomechanics in the presence of dissipation

We investigate a dissipation-engineering approach to produce a phase-dependent collective-mode Schr\"odinger cat state involving two modes. Our model features a single cavity mode that interacts with two spectrally identical mechanical oscillators. Both oscillators are coupled through a phase-dependent hopping interaction. We demonstrate that by adjusting the phase of the phonon-hopping interaction, one can control the bipartite entanglement of the phase-dependent two-mode cat state during its generation. Additionally, our study reveals that phonon interactions act as a tunable parameter, enabling the manipulation of steady-state entanglement between the bare mechanical modes, even in the presence of environmental effects and thermal excitations. Our scheme provides a feasible approach for the phase-dependent multi mode non-Gaussian states preparation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Spin-force from a Nitrogen-Vacancy ensemble drives a 100 mg levitated resonator

The force experienced by a spin in a magnetic field gradient underlies many proposals for hybrid quantum systems. These include schemes for mechanically mediated quantum gates, spin squeezing, searches for exotic forces, and motional superpositions for probing the interface between quantum and gravity. Yet, experimentally observing this spin-force for anything larger than atomic scales has proved challenging. In our work, we demonstrate controllable Center-of-Mass motion of a $128 \rm\: mg$ diamagnetically levitated oscillator due to force from an ensemble of Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) defects in diamond. We induce coherent motion in the oscillator by periodic optical initialisation of the NV spin states, achieving motional amplitudes exceeding $100 \rm\:nm$. Our results mark a key milestone towards spin-based engineering of motional states deep in the high-mass regime.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

A Spin-Based Pathway to Testing the Quantum Nature of Gravity

A key open problem in physics is the correct way to combine gravity (described by general relativity) with everything else (described by quantum mechanics). This problem suggests that general relativity and possibly also quantum mechanics need fundamental corrections. Most physicists expect that gravity should be quantum in character, but gravity is fundamentally different to the other forces because it alone is described by spacetime geometry. Experiments are needed to test whether gravity, and hence space-time, is quantum or classical. We propose an experiment to test the quantum nature of gravity by checking whether gravity can entangle two micron-sized crystals. A pathway to this is to create macroscopic quantum superpositions of each crystal first using embedded spins and Stern-Gerlach forces. These crystals could be nanodiamonds containing nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres. The spins can subsequently be measured to witness the gravitationally generated entanglement. This is based on extensive theoretical feasibility studies and experimental progress in quantum technology. The eventual experiment will require a medium-sized consortium with excellent suppression of decoherence including vibrations and gravitational noise. In this white paper, we review the progress and plans towards realizing this. While implementing these plans, we will further explore the most macroscopic superpositions that are possible, which will test theories that predict a limit to this.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

A magnetically levitated conducting rotor with ultra-low rotational damping circumventing eddy loss

Levitation of macroscopic objects in a vacuum is key towards the development of high-precision inertial sensors and pressure sensors, as well as towards the fundamental studies of quantum mechanics and its relation to gravity. Diamagnetic levitation offers a passive method at room temperature to isolate macroscopic objects in vacuum environments, yet eddy current damping remains a critical limitation for electrically conductive materials. We show that there are situations where the motion of conductors in magnetic fields does not, in principle, produce eddy damping, and demonstrate an electrically conducting rotor diamagnetically levitated in an axially symmetric magnetic field in a high vacuum. Experimental measurements and finite-element simulations reveal gas collision damping as the dominant loss mechanism at high pressures, while residual eddy damping, which arises from symmetry-breaking factors such as platform tilt or material imperfections, dominates at low pressures. The conclusion is supported by an analytic proof and an analytic example of zero steady current density for a rotating conductor in a magnetic field. This demonstrates a macroscopic levitated rotor with extremely low rotational damping and paves the way to fully suppress rotor damping, enabling ultra-low-loss rotors for gyroscopes, pressure sensing, and fundamental physics tests.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Spin-mechanical thermal machines

We introduce a method to construct a quantum battery and a quantum Otto heat engine using a Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) center spin coupled to a mechanical oscillator in a highly detuned regime. By precisely controlling the NV spin, we enable efficient energy exchange despite significant detuning, challenging conventional assumptions. This leads to a robust mechanical quantum battery and a cooling scheme driving the oscillator toward its ground state. Leveraging this, we implement a quantum Otto engine that produces mechanical work at maximum efficiency without decoupling from the hot bath, paving the way for practical quantum thermal machines.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Quantum metrology with linear Lie algebra parameterisations

Lie algebraic techniques are powerful and widely-used tools for studying dynamics and metrology in quantum optics. When the Hamiltonian generates a Lie algebra with finite dimension, the unitary evolution can be expressed as a finite product of exponentials using the Wei-Norman expansion. The system is then exactly described by a finite set of scalar differential equations, even if the Hilbert space is infinite. However, the differential equations provided by the Wei-Norman expansion are nonlinear and often have singularities that prevent both analytic and numerical evaluation. We derive a new Lie algebra expansion for the quantum Fisher information, which results in linear differential equations. Together with existing Lie algebra techniques this allows many metrology problems to be analysed entirely in the Heisenberg picture. This substantially reduces the calculations involved in many metrology problems, and provides analytical solutions for problems that cannot even be solved numerically using the Wei-Norman expansion. We provide detailed examples of these methods applied to problems in quantum optics and nonlinear optomechanics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

A quantum ticking self-oscillator using delayed feedback

Self-sustained oscillators (SSOs) is a commonly used method to generate classical clock signals and SSOs using delayed feedback have been developed commercially which possess ultra-low phase noise and drift. Research into the development of quantum self-oscillation, where one can also have a periodic and regular output {\em tick}, that can be used to control quantum and classical devices has received much interest and quantum SSOs so far studied suffer from phase diffusion which leads to the smearing out of the quantum oscillator over the entire limit cycle in phase space seriously degrading the system's ability to perform as a self-oscillation. In this paper, we explore quantum versions of time-delayed SSOs, which has the potentials to develop a ticking quantum clock. We first design a linear quantum SSO which exhibits perfect oscillation without phase diffusion. We then explore a nonlinear delayed quantum SSO but find it exhibits dephasing similar to previously studied non-delayed systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Massive quantum superpositions using magneto-mechanics

Macroscopic quantum superpositions of massive objects are deeply interesting as they have a number of potential applications ranging from the exploration of the interaction of gravity with quantum mechanics to quantum sensing, quantum simulation, and computation. In this letter, we propose two related schemes to prepare a spatial superposition of massive quantum oscillator systems with high Q-factor via a superposition of magnetic forces. In the first method, we propose a large spatial superposition of a levitated spherical magnet generated via magnetic forces applied by adjacent flux qubits. We find that in this method the spatial superposition extent ($\Delta z$) is independent of the size of the particle. In the second method, we propose a large spatial superposition of a magnetically levitated (using the Meissner effect) flux qubit, generated via driving the levitated qubit inductively. In both schemes, we show that ultra-large superpositions $\Delta z/\delta z_{\rm zpm}\sim 10^6$, are possible, where $\delta z_{\rm zpm}$ is the zero point motional extent.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Zeptometer displacement sensing using cavity opto-magneto-mechanics

Optomechanical systems have been proven to be very useful for precision sensing of a variety of forces and effects. In this work, we propose an opto-magno-mechanical setup for spatial displacement sensing where one mirror of the optical cavity is levitated in vacuum via diamagnetic forces in an inhomogenous magnetic field produced by two layers of permanent magnets. We show that the optomechanical system can sense small changes in separation between the magnet layers, as the mechanical frequency of the levitated mirror shifts with changing magnet layer separation $d$. We use Quantum Fisher Information (QFI) as a figure of merit of the displacement sensing precision, and study the fundamental precision bound that can be reached in our setup. Nonlinear interaction inherently present in the optomechanical Hamiltonian improves the precision, and we show that in the case of a pure state of the optical cavity, one can achieve extremely small displacement sensing precision of $\Delta d\sim36\times10^{-21}\text{m}$. Further, we incorporate decoherence into our system to study the effect of leaking photons from the optical cavity on the QFI.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Autonomous coherence protection of a two-level system in a fluctuating environment

We re-examine a scheme generalized by [R. Finkelstein et al, Phys. Rev. X 11, 011008 (2021)], whose original purpose was to remove the effects of static Doppler broadening from an ensemble of non-interacting two-level systems (qubits). This scheme involves the simultaneous application of red and blue detuned drives between a qubit level and an auxiliary level, and by carefully choosing the drive amplitudes and detunings, the drive-induced energy shifts can exactly compensate the inhomogeneous static Doppler-induced frequency shifts - effectively removing the inhomogeneous Doppler broadening. We demonstrate that this scheme is far more powerful and can also protect a single (or even an ensemble), qubit's energy levels from noise which depends on both time and space: the same scheme can greatly reduce the effects of dephasing noise induced by a time-fluctuating environment. As examples we study protection against two types of non-Markovian environments that appear in many physical systems: Gaussian noise and non-Gaussian noise - Random Telegraph Noise. Through numerical simulations we demonstrate the enhancement of the spin coherence time $T_2^*$, of a qubit in a fluctuating environment by three orders of magnitude as well as the refocusing of its initially drifting frequency. This same scheme, using only two drives, can operate on an collection of qubits, providing temporal and spatial stabilization simultaneously and in parallel yielding a collection of high quality near-identical qubits which can be useful for many quantum technologies such as quantum computing and sensing, with the potential to achieve fault tolerant quantum computation much sooner.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Controlling the motional quality factor of a diamagnetically levitated graphite plate

Researchers seek methods to levitate matter for a wide variety of purposes, ranging from exploring fundamental problems in science, through to developing new sensors and mechanical actuators. Many levitation techniques require active driving and most can only be applied to objects smaller than a few micrometers. Diamagnetic levitation has the strong advantage of being the only form of levitation which is passive, requiring no energy input, while also supporting massive objects. Known diamagnetic materials which are electrical insulators are only weakly diamagnetic, and require large magnetic field gradients to levitate. Strong diamagnetic materials which are electrical conductors, such as graphite, exhibit eddy damping, restricting motional freedom and reducing their potential for sensing applications. In this work we describe a method to engineer the eddy damping while retaining the force characteristics provided by the diamagnetic material. We study, both experimentally and theoretically, the motional damping of a magnetically levitated graphite plate in high vacuum and demonstrate that one can control the eddy damping by patterning the plate with through-slots which interrupt the eddy currents. We find we can control the motional quality factor over a wide range with excellent agreement between the experiment and numerical simulations.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2022

Measurement based estimator scheme for continuous quantum error correction

Canonical discrete quantum error correction (DQEC) schemes use projective von Neumann measurements on stabilizers to discretize the error syndromes into a finite set, and fast unitary gates are applied to recover the corrupted information. Quantum error correction (QEC) based on continuous measurement, known as continuous quantum error correction (CQEC), in principle, can be executed faster than DQEC and can also be resource efficient. However, CQEC requires meticulous filtering of noisy continuous measurement data to reliably extract error syndromes on the basis of which errors could be detected. In this paper, we show that by constructing a measurement-based estimator (MBE) of the logical qubit to be protected, which is driven by the noisy continuous measurement currents of the stabilizers, it is possible to accurately track the errors occurring on the physical qubits in real time. We use this MBE to develop a continuous quantum error correction (MBE-CQEC) scheme that can protect the logical qubit to a high degree, surpassing the performance of DQEC, and also allows QEC to be conducted either immediately or in delayed time with instantaneous feedbacks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Accelerated Magnonic Motional Cooling with Deep Reinforcement Learning

Achieving fast cooling of motional modes is a prerequisite for leveraging such bosonic quanta for high-speed quantum information processing. In this work, we address the aspect of reducing the time limit for cooling below that constrained by the conventional sideband cooling techniques; and propose a scheme to apply deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to achieve this. In particular, we have shown how the scheme can be used effectively to accelerate the dynamic motional cooling of a macroscopic magnonic sphere, and how it can be uniformly extended for more complex systems, for example, a tripartite opto-magno-mechanical system to obtain cooling of the motional mode below the time bound of coherent cooling. While conventional sideband cooling methods do not work beyond the well-known rotating wave approximation (RWA) regimes, our proposed DRL scheme can be applied uniformly to regimes operating within and beyond the RWA, and thus this offers a new and complete toolkit for rapid control and generation of macroscopic quantum states for application in quantum technologies.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Measurement Based Feedback Quantum Control With Deep Reinforcement Learning for Double-well Non-linear Potential

Closed loop quantum control uses measurement to control the dynamics of a quantum system to achieve either a desired target state or target dynamics. In the case when the quantum Hamiltonian is quadratic in ${x}$ and ${p}$, there are known optimal control techniques to drive the dynamics towards particular states e.g. the ground state. However, for nonlinear Hamiltonians such control techniques often fail. We apply Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), where an artificial neural agent explores and learns to control the quantum evolution of a highly non-linear system (double well), driving the system towards the ground state with high fidelity. We consider a DRL strategy which is particularly motivated by experiment where the quantum system is continuously but weakly measured. This measurement is then fed back to the neural agent and used for training. We show that the DRL can effectively learn counter-intuitive strategies to cool the system to a nearly-pure `cat' state which has a high overlap fidelity with the true ground state.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Cavity magnomechanical storage and retrieval of quantum states

We show how a quantum state in a microwave cavity mode can be transferred to and stored in a phononic mode via an intermediate magnon mode in a magnomechanical system. For this we consider a ferrimagnetic yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere inserted in a microwave cavity, where the microwave and magnon modes are coupled via a magnetic-dipole interaction and the magnon and phonon modes in the YIG sphere are coupled via magnetostrictive forces. By modulating the cavity and magnon detunings and the driving of the magnon mode in time, a Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP)-like coherent transfer becomes possible between the cavity mode and the phonon mode. The phononic mode can be used to store the photonic quantum state for long periods as it possesses lower damping than the photonic and magnon modes. Thus our proposed scheme offers a possibility of using magnomechanical systems as quantum memory for photonic quantum information.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Generating nonlinearities from conditional linear operations, squeezing and measurement for quantum computation and super-Heisenberg sensing

Large optical nonlinearities can have numerous applications, ranging from the generation of cat-states for optical quantum computation, through to quantum sensing where the sensitivity exceeds Heisenberg scaling in the resources. However, the generation of ultra-large optical nonlinearities has proved immensely challenging experimentally. We describe a novel protocol where one can effectively generate large optical nonlinearities via the conditional application of a linear operation on an optical mode by an ancilla mode, followed by a measurement of the ancilla and corrective operation on the probe mode. Our protocol can generate high quality optical Schr{ö}dinger cat states useful for optical quantum computing and can be used to perform sensing of an unknown rotation or displacement in phase space, with super-Heisenberg scaling in the resources. We finally describe a potential experimental implementation using atomic ensembles interacting with optical modes via the Faraday effect.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Optomechanical cooling by STIRAP-assisted energy transfer $:$ an alternative route towards the mechanical ground state

Standard optomechanical cooling methods ideally require weak coupling and cavity damping rates which enable the motional sidebands to be well resolved. If the coupling is too large then sideband-resolved cooling is unstable or the rotating wave approximation can become invalid. In this work we describe a protocol to cool a mechanical resonator coupled to a driven optical mode in an optomechanical cavity, which is also coupled to an optical mode in another auxiliary optical cavity, and both the cavities are frequency-modulated. We show that by modulating the amplitude of the drive as well, one can execute a type of STIRAP transfer of occupation from the mechanical mode to the lossy auxiliary optical mode which results in cooling of the mechanical mode. We show how this protocol can outperform normal optomechanical sideband cooling in various regimes such as the strong coupling and the unresolved sideband limit.

quant-ph↗