Geometric pathway to scalable quantum sensing (1908.01120v5)

Abstract: Entangled resources enable quantum sensing that achieves Heisenberg scaling, a quadratic improvement on the standard quantum limit, but preparing large scale entangled states is challenging in the presence of decoherence. We present a quantum control strategy using highly nonlinear geometric phase gates for preparing entangled states on spin ensembles which can be used for practical precision metrology. The method uses a dispersive coupling of $N$ spins to a common bosonic mode and does not require addressability, special detunings, or interactions between the spins. Using a control sequence that executes Grover's algorithm on a subspace of permutationally symmetric states, a target entangled resource state can be prepared using $O(N^{5/4})$ geometric phase gates. The geometrically closed path of the control operations ensures the gates are insensitive to the initial state of the mode and the sequence has built-in dynamical decoupling providing resilience to dephasing errors.