Quantum entanglement distribution using a magnetic field sensor

Sensors based on crystal defects, especially nitrogen vacancy (NV) centres in nanodiamond, can achieve detection of single magnetic moments. Here, we show that this exquisite control can be utilized to entangle remote electronic spins for applications in quantum computing; the mobile sensor provides a 'flying' qubit while the act of sensing the local field constitutes a two-qubit projective measurement. Thus, the NV centre mediates entanglement between an array of well-separated (and thus well-controlled) qubits. Our calculations establish that such a device would be remarkably robust against realistic issues such as dephasing, inaccurate timing and both positioning errors and multimodal vibrations in the sensor tip. Interestingly, the fact that this form of flying qubit is readily measurable allows one to convert certain classes of unknown errors into heralded failures, which are relatively easy to deal with using established quantum information processing techniques. We also provide calculations establishing the feasibility of performing a demonstrator experiment with a fixed sensor in the immediate future.