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Katrijn Everaert

Publications and source records attributed to Katrijn Everaert.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Eigenframe Synchronization in Disordered Driven Quantum Ensembles

Periodic driving underlies many forms of quantum control, including spin-based quantum sensing. However, in an ensemble sensor, one waveform must act on spins with different detunings, drive amplitudes, hyperfine environments, and local fields. Existing robust-control approaches to such disorder are usually framed in terms of coherence, effective Hamiltonians, filter functions, or refocusing. Here we identify a complementary geometric requirement for collective ensemble Floquet control: disorder realizations must share a common Floquet eigenframe. When this condition is met, initialization, protection, signal coupling, and readout are defined in one dressed basis, so the ensemble responds as a collective Floquet sensor rather than as an average over inequivalent driven members. We make this condition measurable with an eigenvector-based synchronization order parameter and a complementary fragmentation metric that quantify the alignment and spread of Floquet quantization axes across the ensemble. As one realization of this framework, we use a continuous counterdiabatic Floquet drive to derive synchronization criteria and predict resonance-governed breakdown at the first two low-order commensurabilities between the engineered Floquet gap and the drive modulation, with detuning and amplitude disorder producing distinct breakdown channels. Experiments on a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) ensemble in diamond verify the synchronized regime through long-lived collective oscillations, a two-dimensional disorder-robustness map, and breakdown resonances that shift with the modulation rate. Finally, we demonstrate a harmonic-free continuous-drive AC magnetometry protocol whose collective single-tone response is enabled by the synchronized Floquet eigenframe. These results establish Floquet eigenframe synchronization as a measurable condition for disorder-resilient collective control and quantum sensing.

quant-ph

AC magnetometry in the strong drive regime with NV centers in diamond

Magnetic response measurements in the presence of AC drive fields provide critical insight into the properties of magnetic and conductive materials, such as phase transitions in two-dimensional van der Waals magnets, the heating efficiency of magnetic nanoparticles in biological environments, and the integrity of metals in eddy current testing. Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are a commonly-used platform for such studies, due to their high spatial resolution and sensitivity, but are typically limited to weak-drive conditions, i.e., AC drive fields well below the NV microwave (MW) pulse Rabi strength. Once the AC drive field grows comparable to or larger than the Rabi strength, the induced MW pulse detuning suppresses NV sensitivity to the out-of-phase magnetic response, which encodes dissipation and conductivity in materials of interest. Here, we introduce a phase modulation protocol that cancels MW pulse detuning to leading order, and extends NV AC magnetometry into the strong drive field regime. The protocol, termed SIPHT (Signal Isolation through PHase Tuning), is experimentally demonstrated using an NV ensemble. By directly comparing SIPHT to the conventional Hahn echo AC sensing protocol, we quantify the preservation of NV magnetometry contrast for an out-of-phase signal. We further showcase SIPHT by detecting eddy current-induced magnetic fields from Cu, Al, and Ti samples, with the measured response field phase delays reflecting their distinct conductivities. SIPHT extends NV AC magnetometry to regimes inaccessible to standard dynamical decoupling measurement protocols, unlocking novel utility, e.g., in the study of magnetic hyperthermia and nondestructive testing of conductors.

quant-ph

A tabletop Optically Pumped Magnetometer setup for the monitoring of magnetic nanoparticle clustering and immobilization using Thermal Noise Magnetometry

Many characterization techniques for magnetic nanoparticles depend on the usage of external fields. This is not the case in Thermal Noise Magnetometry (TNM), where thermal fluctuations in the magnetic signal of magnetic nanoparticle ensembles are measured without any external excitation. This can provide valuable information about the fundamental dynamical properties of the particles, due to the purely observative experiments of this relatively new technique. Until now, TNM signals have been detected only by a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) sensor. We present a tabletop setup using Optically Pumped Magnetometers (OPMs) in a small magnetic shield, offering a flexible and accessible alternative and show the agreement between both measurement systems for two different commercially available nanoparticle samples. We argue that the OPM setup with high accessibility complements the SQUID setup with high sensitivity and bandwidth. Furthermore, because of its excellent sensitivity in the lower frequencies, the OPM tabletop setup is well suited to monitor aggregation processes where the magnetization dynamics of the particles tend to slow down, e.g. in biological processes. As a proof of concept, we show for three different immobilization and clustering processes the changes in the noise spectrum measured in the tabletop setup: 1) the aggregation of particles due to the addition of ethanol, 2) the formation of polymer structures in the sample due to UV exposure, and 3) the cellular uptake of the particles by THP-1 cells. From our results we conclude that the tabletop setup offers a flexible and widely adoptable sensor measurement unit to monitor the immobilization and clustering of magnetic nanoparticles over time for different applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Thermal Noise Magnetometry of magnetic nanoparticles: simulations and experiments

Magnetic nanoparticles have proven to be valuable for biomedical applications. A prerequisite for the efficiency of these applications are precisely characterized particles. Thermal Noise Magnetrometry (TNM), unlike any other magnetic characterization method, allows to characterize the particles without the application of an external excitation. We present a theoretical framework to model the experiment in order to examine the magnetic noise power properties of particle ensembles in TNM and optimize the geometry of the nanoparticle sample. An optimized sample geometry is calculated to maximize the noise power measured by the detector. The theoretical framework and the newly designed sample holder are validated by measuring a sensitivity profile in the setup. The optimized sample holder increases the noise power with a factor of 3.5 compared to the regular sample holder, while its volume is decreased by more than half. Moreover, the experimental profiles are consistent with the simulated counterparts, confirming the relevance of the theoretical framework. These results contribute to the further establishment of TNM as magnetic nanoparticle characterization method.

cond-mat.mes-hall