Experimental realization of quantum-computing-enhanced sensing
TL;DR
This work establishes signal-driven oracles as a route for harnessing oracle-based quantum algorithms and realizing quantum-computing-enhanced sensing in a spin-oscillator architecture, where a microwave cavity provides a high-dimensional quantum register and a coupled superconducting qubit serves as the sensor.
Abstract
Quantum algorithms offer computational advantages, yet incorporating them into quantum sensing and converting these advantages into enhanced information acquisition remains challenging. Here, we realize quantum-computing-enhanced sensing in a spin-oscillator architecture, where a microwave cavity provides a high-dimensional quantum register and a coupled superconducting qubit serves as the sensor. The unknown signal directly generates the phase oracle operation, establishing a natural physical interface between quantum computation and sensing. We experimentally demonstrate the first Grover search in a bosonic mode and observe quantum amplitude amplification in a Hilbert space spanning more than 128 photons. For the same number of sensing iterations, our protocol extracts more information and resolves more frequency candidates than classical sequential search. Our results establish signal-driven oracles as a route for harnessing oracle-based quantum algorithms and realizing quantum-computing-enhanced sensing.