Single-spin measurement by magnetic resonance force microscopy: Effects of measurement device, thermal noise and spin relaxation

摘要

Single-spin measurement is an extremely important challenge, and necessary for the future successful development of several recent spin-based proposals for quantum information processing. Magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) has been suggested as a promising technique for single-spin detection. We discuss how to read out the quantum state of a single spin using the MRFM technique based on cyclic adiabatic inversion (CAI). We include, in our analysis, a measurement device (an optical interferometer) to monitor the position of the cantilever, which then provides us with information of the spin state. We consider various relevant sources of noise and taken into account the effect of spin relaxation on the single-spin detection scheme. We also present a realistic continuous measurement model, and discuss the approximations and conditions to achieve a quantum non-demolition measurement of a single spin by MRFM. Finally we will present some simulation results for the single-spin measurement process.