Quantum critical detector: amplifying weak signals using discontinuous quantum phase transitions.

We propose a quantum critical detector (QCD) to amplify weak input signals. Our detector exploits a first-order discontinuous quantum-phase-transition and exhibits giant sensitivity (χ ∝ N) when biased at the critical point. We propose a model consisting of spins with long-range interactions coupled to a bosonic mode to describe the time-dynamics in the QCD. We numerically demonstrate dynamical features of the first order (discontinuous) quantum phase transition such as time-dependent quantum gain in a system with 80 interacting spins. We also show the linear scaling with the spin number N in both the quantum gain and the corresponding signal-to-quantum noise ratio during the time evolution of the device. Our work shows that engineering first order discontinuous quantum phase transitions can lead to a device application for metrology, weak signal amplification, and single photon detection.