A quantum-chaotic cesium-vapor magnetometer

Abstract

Quantum-enhanced measurements represent the path towards the best measurement precision allowed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Known protocols usually rely on the preparation of entangled states and promise high or even optimal precision, but fall short in real-word applications because of the difficulty to generate entangled states and to protect them against decoherence. Here, we refrain from the preparation of entangled states but supplement the integrable parameter-encoding dynamics by non-linear kicks driving the system in the dynamical regime of quantum chaos. We show that large improvements in measurement precision are possible by modeling a spin-exchange relaxation-free alkali-vapor magnetometer where the non-linear kicks are realized by exploiting the ac Stark effect.