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Engineered dynamical maps combining coherent and dissipative transformations of quantum states with quantum measurements, have demonstrated a number of technological applications, and promise to be a crucial tool in quantum thermodynamic processes. Here, we exploit the control on the effective open spin qutrit dynamics of an NV center, to experimentally realize an autonomous feedback process (Maxwell demon) with tunable dissipative strength. The feedback is enabled by random measurement events that condition the subsequent dissipative evolution of the qutrit. The efficacy of the autonomous Maxwell demon is quantified by experimentally characterizing the fluctuations of the energy exchanged by the system with the environment by means of a generalized Sagawa-Ueda-Tasaki relation for dissipative dynamics. This opens the way to the implementation of a new class of Maxwell demons, which could be useful for quantum sensing and quantum thermodynamic devices., Comment: Main text: 13 pages, 5 figures. Supplemental Material: 6 pages, 2 figures

Quantum systems can be exquisite sensors thanks to their sensitivity to external perturbations. This same characteristic also makes them fragile to external noise. Quantum control can tackle the challenge of protecting quantum sensors from environmental noise, while leaving their strong coupling to the target field to be measured. As the compromise between these two conflicting requirements does not always have an intuitive solution, optimal control based on numerical search could prove very effective. Here we adapt optimal control theory to the quantum sensing scenario, by introducing a cost function that, unlike the usual fidelity of operation, correctly takes into account both the unknown field to be measured and the environmental noise. We experimentally implement this novel control paradigm using a Nitrogen Vacancy center in diamond, finding improved sensitivity to a broad set of time varying fields. The demonstrated robustness and efficiency of the numerical optimization, as well as the sensitivity advantaged it bestows, will prove beneficial to many quantum sensing applications.

Precise knowledge of a quantum system's Hamiltonian is a critical pre-requisite for its use in many quantum information technologies. Here, we report a method for the precise characterization of the non-secular part of the excited-state Hamiltonian of an electronic-nuclear spin system in diamond. The method relies on the investigation of the dynamic nuclear polarization mediated by the electronic spin, which is currently exploited as a primary tool for initializing nuclear qubits and performing enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance. By measuring the temporal evolution of the population of the ground-state hyperfine levels of a nitrogen-vacancy center, we obtain the first direct estimation of the excited-state transverse hyperfine coupling between its electronic and nitrogen nuclear spin. Our method could also be applied to other electron-nuclear spin systems, such as those related to defects in silicon carbide.

Global Positioning System (GPS) dissemination of frequency standards is ubiquitous at present, providing the most widespread time and frequency reference for the majority of industrial and research applications worldwide. On the other hand, the ultimate limits of the GPS presently curb further advances in high-precision, scientific and industrial applications relying on this dissemination scheme. Here, we demonstrate that these limits can be reliably overcome even in laboratories without a local atomic clock by replacing the GPS with a 642-km-long optical fiber link to a remote primary caesium frequency standard. Through this configuration we stably address the $^1$S$_0$---$^3$P$_0$ clock transition in an ultracold gas of $^{173}$Yb, with a precision that exceeds the possibilities of a GPS-based measurement, dismissing the need for a local clock infrastructure to perform high-precision tasks beyond GPS limit. We also report an improvement of two orders of magnitude in the accuracy on the transition frequency reported in literature.