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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Efficient verification of anticoncentrated quantum states

I present a method for estimating the fidelity F(μ, τ) between a preparable quantum state μ and a classically specified pure target state τ=|τ> <τ|, using simple quantum circuits and on-the-fly classical calculation (or lookup) of selected amplitudes of |τ>. The method is sample efficient for anticoncentrated states (including many states that are hard to simulate classically), with approximate cost 4ϵ –2 (1 – F)dpcoll where ϵ is the desired precision of the estimate, d is the dimension of the Hilbert space, and pcoll is the collision probability of the target distribution. Furthermore, this scaling is exponentially better than that of any method based on classical sampling. I also present a more sophisticated version of the method that uses any efficiently preparable and well-characterized quantum state as an importance sampler to further reduce the number of copies of μ needed. Though some challenges remain, this work takes a significant step toward scalable verification of complex states produced by quantum processors.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Ultimate precision limit of noise sensing and dark matter search

Abstract The nature of dark matter is unknown and calls for a systematical search. For axion dark matter, such a search relies on finding feeble random noise arising from the weak coupling between dark matter and microwave haloscopes. We model such process as a quantum channel and derive the fundamental precision limit of noise sensing. An entanglement-assisted strategy based on two-mode squeezed vacuum is thereby demonstrated optimal, while the optimality of a single-mode squeezed vacuum is found limited to the lossless case. We propose a “nulling” measurement (squeezing and photon counting) to achieve the optimal performances. In terms of the scan rate, even with 20-decibel of strength, single-mode squeezing still underperforms the vacuum limit which is achieved by photon counting on vacuum input; while the two-mode squeezed vacuum provides large and close-to-optimum advantage over the vacuum limit, thus more exotic quantum resources are no longer required. Our results highlight the necessity of entanglement assistance and microwave photon counting in dark matter search.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Heisenberg-limited Hamiltonian learning for interacting bosons

We develop a protocol for learning a class of interacting bosonic Hamiltonians from dynamics with Heisenberg-limited scaling. For Hamiltonians with an underlying bounded-degree graph structure, we can learn all parameters with root mean square error ϵ using ${\mathcal{O}}(1/\epsilon )$ total evolution time, which is independent of the system size, in a way that is robust against state-preparation and measurement error. In the protocol, we only use bosonic coherent states, beam splitters, phase shifters, and homodyne measurements, which are easy to implement on many experimental platforms. A key technique we develop is to apply random unitaries to enforce symmetry in the effective Hamiltonian, which may be of independent interest.

computer science↗
DOE OSTI2025

Configurable antiferromagnetic domains and lateral exchange bias in atomically thin CrPS 4

Interfacial exchange coupling between antiferromagnets (AFMs) and ferromagnets (FMs) crucially makes it possible to shift the FM hysteresis, known as exchange bias, and to switch AFM states. Two-dimensional magnets unlock opportunities to combine AFM and FM materials; however, the buried AFM–FM interfaces obtained by stacking remains challenging to understand. Here, in this work, we demonstrate interfacial control via intralayer exchange coupling in the layered AFM CrPS 4 , where connected even and odd layers realize pristine lateral interfaces between AFM-like and FM-like regions. We distinguish antiphase even-layer states by scanning nitrogen-vacancy centre magnetometry due to a weak surface magnetization. This surface magnetization enables control over the even-layer state, with different regions switching at distinct fields due to their own lateral couplings. We toggle three AFM domains adjacent to a FM-like region and demonstrate a tunable multilevel exchange bias. Our nanoscale visualization unveils the microscopic origins of exchange bias and advances single two-dimensional crystals for hybrid AFM–FM technologies.

magnetic devices↗
DOE OSTI2020

Imaging viscous flow of the Dirac fluid in graphene

The electron–hole plasma in charge-neutral graphene is predicted to realize a quantum critical system in which electrical transport features a universal hydrodynamic description, even at room temperature. This quantum critical ‘Dirac fluid’ is expected to have a shear viscosity close to a minimum bound, with an interparticle scattering rate saturating1 at the Planckian time, the shortest possible timescale for particles to relax. Although electrical transport measurements at finite carrier density are consistent with hydrodynamic electron flow in graphene a clear demonstration of viscous flow at the charge-neutrality point remains elusive. In this work, we directly image viscous Dirac fluid flow in graphene at room temperature by measuring the associated stray magnetic field. Nanoscale magnetic imaging is performed using quantum spin magnetometers realized with nitrogen vacancy centres in diamond. Scanning single-spin and wide-field magnetometry reveal a parabolic Poiseuille profile for electron flow in a high-mobility graphene channel near the charge-neutrality point, establishing the viscous transport of the Dirac fluid. This measurement is in contrast to the conventional uniform flow profile imaged in a metallic conductor and also in a low-mobility graphene channel. Furthermore, via combined imaging and transport measurements, we obtain viscosity and scattering rates, and observe that these quantities are comparable to the universal values expected at quantum criticality. This finding establishes a nearly ideal electron fluid in charge-neutral, high-mobility graphene at room temperature4. Our results will enable the study of hydrodynamic transport in quantum critical fluids relevant to strongly correlated electrons in high-temperature superconductors9. This work also highlights the capability of quantum spin magnetometers to probe correlated electronic phenomena at the nanoscale.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Signal amplification in a solid-state sensor through asymmetric many-body echo

Electronic spins of nitrogen–vacancy centres in diamond constitute a promising system for micro- and nanoscale magnetic sensing, because of their operation under ambient conditions, ease of placement in close proximity to sensing targets and biological compatibility. At high densities, the electronic spins interact through dipolar coupling, which typically limits but can also potentially enhance sensing performance. Here we report the experimental demonstration of many-body signal amplification in a solid-state, room-temperature quantum sensor. Our approach uses time-reversed two-axis-twisting interactions, engineered through dynamical control of the quantization axis and Floquet engineering in a two-dimensional ensemble of nitrogen–vacancy centres. We observe that optimal amplification occurs when the backward evolution time equals twice the forward evolution time, in sharp contrast to the conventional Loschmidt echo. These observations can be understood as resulting from an underlying time-reversed mirror symmetry of the microscopic dynamics, providing key insights into signal amplification and opportunities for practical entanglement-enhanced quantum sensing.

quantum information↗
DOE OSTI2025

Multi-qubit nanoscale sensing with entanglement as a resource

Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centres in diamond are widely deployed as local magnetic sensors, using single-qubit control to measure both time-averaged fields and noise with nanoscale spatial resolution. Moving beyond single qubits to multi-qubit control enables new sensing modalities such as measuring nonlocal spatiotemporal correlators or using entangled states to enhance measurement sensitivity. Here, in this work, we describe protocols for using optically unresolved NV centre pairs and nuclear spins as multi-qubit sensors for measuring correlated noise at nanometre length scales. For noninteracting NV centres, we implement a phase-cycling protocol that disambiguates magnetic correlations from variance fluctuations, leveraging the presence of a third qubit, a 13 C nucleus, to effect coherent single-NV spin flips and enable phase cycling even for co-aligned NV centres that are spectrally unresolved. For length scales around 10 nm, we create maximally entangled Bell states through dipole–dipole coupling between two NV centres and use these entangled states to directly read out the magnetic field correlation, rather than reconstructing it from independent measurements of unentangled NV centres. Importantly, this changes the scaling of sensitivity with readout noise from quadratic to linear. For conventional off-resonant readout of the NV centre spin state (for which the readout noise is roughly 30 times the quantum projection limit), this results in more than an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity. Finally, we demonstrate methods for detecting high spatial- and temporal-resolution correlators with pairs of strongly interacting NV centres.

condensed-matter physics↗
DOE OSTI2023

Entanglement-enhanced optomechanical sensor array with application to dark matter searches

Abstract Squeezed light has long been used to enhance the precision of a single optomechanical sensor. An emerging set of proposals seeks to use arrays of optomechanical sensors to detect weak distributed forces, for applications ranging from gravity-based subterranean imaging to dark matter searches; however, a detailed investigation into the quantum-enhancement of this approach remains outstanding. Here, we propose an array of entanglement-enhanced optomechanical sensors to improve the broadband sensitivity of distributed force sensing. By coherently operating the optomechanical sensor array and distributing squeezing to entangle the optical fields, the array of sensors has a scaling advantage over independent sensors (i.e., $$\sqrt{M}\to M$$ M → M , where M is the number of sensors) due to coherence as well as joint noise suppression due to multi-partite entanglement. As an illustration, we consider entanglement-enhancement of an optomechanical accelerometer array to search for dark matter, and elucidate the challenge of realizing a quantum advantage in this context.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Aperiodic optical coatings for neutral-color semi-transparent organic photovoltaics

Semi-transparent organic photovoltaics (ST-OPVs) have the potential for integration with windows for ubiquitous power generating applications. Typically, such applications require that ST-OPVs be neutrally transparent across the visible and exhibit both a high average photopic transmittance (APT) and color rendering index, as well as iso-energetic chromaticity coordinates. In this work, we demonstrate the design and use of optical coatings to achieve ST-OPVs with a neutral visible transmittance of APT = 50%, a power conversion efficiency of 8.3%, and optical properties that are independent of a ± 30° variation in the solar angle of incidence. As a result, these simple optical coatings are rapidly designed using a genetic algorithm and transfer matrix formalism.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Quantum model learning agent: characterisation of quantum systems through machine learning

Accurate models of real quantum systems are important for investigating their behaviour, yet are difficult to distil empirically. Here, we report an algorithm—the quantum model learning agent (QMLA)—to reverse engineer Hamiltonian descriptions of a target system. We test the performance of QMLA on a number of simulated experiments, demonstrating several mechanisms for the design of candidate Hamiltonian models and simultaneously entertaining numerous hypotheses about the nature of the physical interactions governing the system under study. QMLA is shown to identify the true model in the majority of instances, when provided with limited a priori information, and control of the experimental setup. Our protocol can explore Ising, Heisenberg and Hubbard families of models in parallel, reliably identifying the family which best describes the system dynamics. We demonstrate QMLA operating on large model spaces by incorporating a genetic algorithm to formulate new hypothetical models. The selection of models whose features propagate to the next generation is based upon an objective function inspired by the Elo rating scheme, typically used to rate competitors in games such as chess and football. In all instances, our protocol finds models that exhibit F 1 score ≥ 0.88 when compared with the true model, and it precisely identifies the true model in 72% of cases, whilst exploring a space of over 250 000 potential models. By testing which interactions actually occur in the target system, QMLA is a viable tool for both the exploration of fundamental physics and the characterisation and calibration of quantum devices.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Bottom-up fabrication of scalable room-temperature diamond quantum computing and sensing technologies

The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond is a premier solid-state defect for quantum information processing and metrology. An integrated diamond quantum device harnesses the collective properties of multiple NV centres, enabling room-temperature quantum computing and sensing. While large-scale devices are poised to fill an important gap in the burgeoning quantum technology landscape, their practical realisation has not been achieved using current top-down fabrication techniques such as ion implantation. Consequently, this necessitates the development of a bottom-up fabrication technique, which is scalable, deterministic, and possesses atomic-scale precision. Informed by existing methods for fabricating phosphorous defect qubits in silicon, we envision a hydrogen depassivation lithography technique for atomically-precise manufacturing of nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond. This perspective article outlines a viable multi-step procedure for realising scalable fabrication of diamond quantum devices and identifies the key challenges in its development.

CVD↗
DOE OSTI2022

Utilizing machine learning to improve the precision of fluorescence imaging of cavity-generated spin squeezed states

We present a supervised learning model to calibrate the photon collection rate during the fluorescence imaging of cold atoms. The linear regression model finds the collection rate at each location on the sensor such that the atomic population difference equals that of a highly precise optical cavity measurement. This 192 variable regression results in a measurement variance 27% smaller than our previous single variable regression calibration. The measurement variance is now in agreement with the theoretical limit due to other known noise sources. This model efficiently trains in less than a minute on a standard personal computer's CPU and requires less than 10 min of data collection. Furthermore, the model is applicable across a large change in population difference and across data collected on different days.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Enhancing strontium clock atom interferometry using quantum optimal control

Strontium clock atom interferometry is a promising new technology, with multiple experiments under development around the world to explore its potential for dark matter and gravitational wave detection. In these detectors, large momentum transfer using sequences of many laser pulses is necessary, and thus high-fidelity pulses are important since small errors become magnified. Quantum optimal control (QOC) is a framework for developing control pulse waveforms that achieve high fidelity and are robust against experimental imperfections. Resonant single-photon transitions using the narrow clock transition of strontium involve significantly different quantum dynamics than more established atom interferometry methods based on far-detuned two-photon Raman or Bragg transitions, which leads to new opportunities and challenges when applying QOC. Here, we study in simulation QOC pulses for strontium clock interferometry and demonstrate their advantage over basic square pulses (primitive pulses) and composite pulses in terms of robustness against multiple noise channels. In conclusion, this could improve the scale of large momentum transfer in Sr clock interferometers, paving the way to achieving these scientific goals.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

First-principles study of quantum defect candidates in beryllium oxide

Beryllium oxide (BeO) is a promising host for quantum defects because of its ultrawide band gap. We conducted comprehensive first-principles investigations of the native point defects in BeO using density functional theory with a hybrid functional. We found that the beryllium and oxygen vacancies are the most stable defects, whereas other native defects such as interstitials or antisites have high formation energies. We investigate the point defects as candidates for quantum defects by examining spin states and internal optical transitions. Here, the oxygen vacancy ($V$$^{+}_{O}$) emerges as a suitable spin qubit or single-photon emitter; we also find its stability can be enhanced by forming a (V O – Li Be ) 0 complex with a Li acceptor. The $O$$^{–}_{Be}$ antisite also has desirable optical and spin properties. Overall, because of its desirable properties as a host material, BeO could be an excellent host for quantum defects, with $V$$^{+}_{O}$, (V O – Li Be ) 0 , and $O$$^{–}_{Be}$ as prime candidates.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Highly excited electron cyclotron for QCD axion and dark-photon detection

We propose using highly excited cyclotron states of a trapped electron to detect meV axion and dark-photon dark matter, marking a significant improvement over our previous proposal and demonstration [One-electron quantum cyclotron as a milli-ev dark-photon detector, .]. When the axion mass matches the cyclotron frequency ω c , the cyclotron state is resonantly excited, with a transition probability proportional to its initial quantum number, n c . The sensitivity is enhanced by taking n c ∼ 10 6 ( 0.1 meV ω c ) 2 . By optimizing key experimental parameters, we minimize the required averaging time for cyclotron detection to t ave ∼ 10 − 6 s, permitting detection of such a highly excited state before its decay. An open–end-cap trap design enables the external photon signal to be directed into the trap, rendering our background-free detector compatible with large focusing cavities, such as the BREAD proposal, while capitalizing on their strong magnetic fields. Furthermore, the axion conversion rate can be coherently enhanced by incorporating layers of dielectrics with alternating refractive indices within the cavity. Collectively, these optimizations enable us to probe the QCD axion parameter space from 0.1 to 2.3 meV (25–560 GHz), covering a substantial portion of the predicted postinflationary QCD axion mass range. This sensitivity corresponds to probing the kinetic mixing parameter of the dark photon down to ε ≈ 2 × 10 − 16 . Published by the American Physical Society 2025

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Lifetime-Limited Interrogation of Two Independent 27 Al + Clocks Using Correlation Spectroscopy

Laser decoherence limits the stability of optical clocks by broadening the observable resonance linewidths and adding noise during the dead time between clock probes. Correlation spectroscopy avoids these limitations by measuring correlated atomic transitions between two ensembles, which provides a frequency difference measurement independent of laser noise. Here, we apply this technique to perform stability measurements between two independent clocks based on the 1 S 0 ↔ 3 P 0 transition in 27 Al + . By stabilizing the dominant sources of differential phase noise between the two clocks, we observe coherence between them during synchronous Ramsey interrogations as long as 8 s at a frequency of 1.12 × 10 15 Hz. Here, the observed contrast in the correlation spectroscopy signal is consistent with the 20.6 s 3 P 0 state lifetime and represents a measurement instability of (1.8 ± 0.5) × 10 –16 /√τ/s for averaging periods longer than the probe duration when dead time is negligible.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantum Enhanced Cavity QED Interferometer with Partially Delocalized Atoms in Lattices

Herein, we propose a quantum enhanced interferometric protocol for gravimetry and force sensing using cold atoms in an optical lattice supported by a standing-wave cavity. By loading the atoms in partially delocalized Wannier-Stark states, it is possible to cancel the undesirable inhomogeneities arising from the mismatch between the lattice and cavity fields and to generate spin squeezed states via a uniform one-axis twisting model. The quantum enhanced sensitivity of the states is combined with the subsequent application of a compound pulse sequence that allows us to separate atoms by several lattice sites. This, together with the capability to load small atomic clouds in the lattice at micrometric distances from a surface, make our setup ideal for sensing short-range forces. We show that for arrays of 10 4 atoms, our protocol can reduce the required averaging time by a factor of 10 compared to unentangled lattice-based interferometers after accounting for primary sources of decoherence.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Test of Causal Nonlinear Quantum Mechanics by Ramsey Interferometry with a Trapped Ion

Quantum mechanics requires the time evolution of the wave function to be linear. While this feature has been associated with the preservation of causality, a consistent causal nonlinear theory was recently developed. Interestingly, this theory is unavoidably sensitive to the full physical spread of the wave function, rendering existing experimental tests for nonlinearities inapplicable. Here, in this work, using well-controlled motional superpositions of a trapped ion, we set a stringent limit of 5.4×10 –12 on the magnitude of the unitless scaling factor $\tilde{ε}_γ$ for the predicted causal nonlinear perturbation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗