Maximizing Information on the Environment by Dynamically Controlled Qubit Probes
Analia Zwick, Gonzalo A. Álvarez, Gershon Kurizki · Physical Review Applied · 2016
From computers to medicine, miniaturization approaches the atomic scale, where device operation can be dominated by quantum effects that are strongly coupled to the local environment. These influences may be seen not as a nuisance, but rather a nearly untapped source of information about physical or biochemical processes playing out nearby. How can one extract maximum information from such fluctuations with an atomic probe, under typical experimental constraints? The authors use quantum estimation theory to outline a general strategy for dynamical measurement of a broad class of environmental processes.