Direct Observation of Dipolar-Driven Anisotropic Quantum Projection Noise in a Solid-State Spin Ensemble
Abstract
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is a prominent quantum-sensing platform. Combining readout at the quantum projection noise limit with strong dipolar interactions promises substantial gains in sensitivity. However, experimentally accessing this regime has remained a longstanding challenge. In this work, we demonstrate quantum-projection-noise-resolved readout of a strongly-interacting, two-dimensional ensemble of NV centers. Our approach leverages repetitive readout via the NV's intrinsic 15N nuclear memory at a moderate magnetic field (∼ 0.3 T), improving the readout fidelities by nearly an order of magnitude. This enables us to directly resolve the quantum projection noise of a coherent spin state and to watch the ensemble's intrinsic dipolar interactions shear this noise into an anisotropic profile. Our results open the door to direct measurements of spin squeezing and entanglement-enhanced sensing in the solid state.
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BibTeX
@misc{ono2026direct,
title = {{Direct Observation of Dipolar-Driven Anisotropic Quantum Projection Noise in a Solid-State Spin Ensemble}},
author = {Tasuku Ono and Weijie Wu and Haopu Yang and Lillian B. Hughes Wyatt and Benjamin Brenner and Che Liu and Collin Fan and Chris R. Laumann and Jonathan N. Hallén and Emily J. Davis and Ania C. Bleszynski Jayich and Norman Y. Yao},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.16106},
eprint = {2609.16106},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16106},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Direct Observation of Dipolar-Driven Anisotropic Quantum Projection Noise in a Solid-State Spin Ensemble
AU - Tasuku Ono
AU - Weijie Wu
AU - Haopu Yang
AU - Lillian B. Hughes Wyatt
AU - Benjamin Brenner
AU - Che Liu
AU - Collin Fan
AU - Chris R. Laumann
AU - Jonathan N. Hallén
AU - Emily J. Davis
AU - Ania C. Bleszynski Jayich
AU - Norman Y. Yao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.16106
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16106
AB - The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is a prominent quantum-sensing platform. Combining readout at the quantum projection noise limit with strong dipolar interactions promises substantial gains in sensitivity. However, experimentally accessing this regime has remained a longstanding challenge. In this work, we demonstrate quantum-projection-noise-resolved readout of a strongly-interacting, two-dimensional ensemble of NV centers. Our approach leverages repetitive readout via the NV's intrinsic ^15N nuclear memory at a moderate magnetic field (∼ 0.3 T), improving the readout fidelities by nearly an order of magnitude. This enables us to directly resolve the quantum projection noise of a coherent spin state and to watch the ensemble's intrinsic dipolar interactions shear this noise into an anisotropic profile. Our results open the door to direct measurements of spin squeezing and entanglement-enhanced sensing in the solid state.
ER -