Entanglement-enhanced magnetic induction tomography

Abstract

Magnetic induction tomography (MIT) is a sensing protocol, exploring conductive objects via their response to radio-frequency magnetic fields. MIT is used in nondestructive testing ranging from geophysics to medical applications. Atomic magnetometers, employed as MIT sensors, allow for significant improvement of the MIT sensitivity and for exploring its quantum limits. Here we report entanglement-enhanced MIT with an atomic magnetometer used as the sensing element. We generate an entangled and spin squeezed state of atoms of the sensor by stroboscopic quantum non-demolition measurement. We then utilize this spin state to demonstrate the improvement of one-dimensional MIT sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit.