Experimental High-Accuracy and Broadband Quantum Frequency Sensing via Geodesic Control

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel quantum frequency sensing method using geodesic control with nitrogen-vacancy centers, achieving high accuracy and broadband operation while suppressing harmonic errors and maintaining millihertz resolution in noisy conditions.

Contribution

It introduces geodesic control for quantum sensing, enabling bias-free, high-accuracy frequency estimation across a wide spectral range with suppressed harmonic errors.

Findings

Achieved millihertz-level frequency resolution.

Demonstrated suppression of harmonic-induced systematic errors.

Validated geodesic control as practical for high-accuracy quantum metrology.

Abstract

Accurate frequency estimation of oscillating signals over a broad bandwidth is a central task in quantum sensing, yet it is often compromised by spurious responses to higher-order harmonics in realistic multi-frequency environments. Here we experimentally demonstrate a high-accuracy and broadband quantum frequency sensing protocol based on geodesic control, implemented using the electron spin of a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. By engineering an intrinsically single-frequency response, geodesic control enables bias-free frequency estimation with strong suppression of harmonic-induced systematic errors across a wide spectral range spanning from the megahertz to the gigahertz regime. Furthermore, by incorporating synchronized readout, we achieve millihertz-level frequency resolution under noisy signal conditions. Our results provide systematic experimental benchmarking of geodesic control for quantum frequency sensing and establish it as a practical approach for high-accuracy metrology in realistic environments.