Measurement of linear response functions in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 12797 - 9
• Main Authors: Xin, Tao, Pedernales, Julen S., Lamata, Lucas, Solano, Enrique, Long, Gui-Lu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09.10.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/766/483/1139; 639/766/483/481; Atoms & subatomic particles; Chloroform; Humanities and Social Sciences; Laboratories; Magnetic fields; Magnetic susceptibility; multidisciplinary; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Physics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-13037-4

We measure multi-time correlation functions of a set of Pauli operators on a two-level system, which can be used to retrieve its associated linear response functions. The two-level system is an effective spin constructed from the nuclear spins of 1 H atoms in a solution of 13 C-labeled chloroform. Response functions characterize the linear response of the system to a family of perturbations, allowing us to compute physical quantities such as the magnetic susceptibility of the effective spin. We use techniques exported from quantum information to measure time correlations on the two-level system. This approach requires the use of an ancillary qubit encoded in the nuclear spins of the 13 C atoms and a sequence of controlled operations. Moreover, we demonstrate the ability of such a quantum platform to compute time-correlation functions of arbitrary order, which relate to higher-order corrections of perturbative methods. Particularly, we show three-time correlation functions for arbitrary times, and we also measure time correlation functions at fixed times up to tenth order.