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arXiv:1005.4428 · Physical Review Letters

Control and Coherence of the Optical Transition of Single Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Diamond

Lucio Robledo, Hannes Bernien, Ilse van Weperen, Ronald Hanson

Published Oct 21, 2010• 124 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate coherent control of the optical transition of single nitrogen-vacancy defect centers in diamond. On applying short resonant laser pulses, we observe optical Rabi oscillations with a half period as short as 1 ns, an order of magnitude shorter than the spontaneous emission time. By studying the decay of Rabi oscillations, we find that the decoherence is dominated by laser-induced spectral jumps. By using a low-power probe pulse as a detuning sensor and applying postselection, we demonstrate that spectral diffusion can be overcome in this system to generate coherent photons.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.105.177403

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We demonstrate coherent control of the optical transition of single nitrogen-vacancy defect centers in diamond. On applying short resonant laser pulses, we observe optical Rabi oscillations with a half period as short as 1 ns, an order of magnitude shorter than the spontaneous emission time. By studying the decay of Rabi oscillations, we find that the decoherence is dominated by laser-induced spectral jumps. By using a low-power probe pulse as a detuning sensor and applying postselection, we demonstrate that spectral diffusion can be overcome in this system to generate coherent photons.
Rabi oscillations and adiabatic passage of single electron spins in a diamond nitrogen vacancy center are demonstrated with two Raman-resonant optical pulses that are detuned from the respective dipole optical transitions. We show that the optical spin control is nuclear-spin selective and can be robust against rapid decoherence, including radiative decay and spectral diffusion, of the underlying optical transitions. A direct comparison between the Rabi oscillation and the adiabatic passage, along with a detailed theoretical analysis, provides significant physical insights into the connections and differences between these coherent spin processes and also elucidates the role of spectral diffusion in these processes. The optically driven coherent spin processes enable the use of nitrogen vacancy excited states to mediate coherent spin-phonon coupling, opening the door to combining optical control of both spin and mechanical degrees of freedom.
Optically-driven Rabi oscillations of single electron spins in a diamond nitrogen vacancy center are realized with two Raman-resonant optical pulses that are detuned from the respective dipole optical transitions. The Rabi oscillations are nuclear-spin selective and are robust against rapid decoherence of the underlying optical transitions, opening the door to generating phonon-mediated spin entanglement in an optically-driven spin-phonon system. A direct comparison between the Rabi oscillations and simulated Raman adiabatic passage along with a detailed theoretical analysis provide a wealth of information on the coherent spin dynamics and in particular reveal that decoherence and environmental fluctuations associated with the optical transitions affect the fidelity of the Rabi oscillations through relatively large jumps in the transition frequencies.
Photon interference among distant quantum emitters is a promising method to generate large scale quantum networks. Interference is best achieved when photons show long coherence times. For the nitrogen-vacancy defect center in diamond we measure the coherence times of photons via optically induced Rabi oscillations. Experiments reveal a close to Fourier-transform (i.e., lifetime) limited width of photons emitted even when averaged over minutes. The projected contrast of two-photon interference (0.8) is high enough to envisage applications in quantum information processing. We report 12 and 7.8 ns excited state lifetimes depending on the spin state of the defect.
Photon interference among distant quantum emitters is a promising method to generate large scale quantum networks. Interference is best achieved when photons show long coherence times. For the nitrogen-vacancy defect center in diamond we measure the coherence times of photons via optically induced Rabi oscillations. Experiments reveal a close to Fourier transform (i.e. lifetime) limited width of photons emitted even when averaged over minutes. The projected contrast of two-photon interference (0.8) is high enough to envisage the applications in quantum information processing. We report 12 and 7.8 ns excited state lifetime depending on the spin state of the defect.
The germanium vacancy in diamond (GeV) is a promising candidate for color center based quantum networking. Yet, like for other group-IV vacancy defects in diamond, achieving fast, high-fidelity qubit operations using traditional magnetic resonance techniques is experimentally challenging due to a weak magnetic dipole and susceptibility to thermally induced decoherence. Here, we perform all-optical control of the GeV and realize Rabi frequencies exceeding ∼ 20 MHz. We do so by driving the two Λ -systems of the GeV simultaneously and apply this to probe the spin coherence ( T 2 * = 224 ± 14 ns, T 2 H = 11.9 ± 0.3 µ s ). Our control scheme is applicable to other color centers and particularly, other group-IV defects for which the scheme may be optimized to improve all-optical control in these systems.
The ability to prepare, optically read out and coherently control single quantum states is a key requirement for quantum information processing. Optically active solid-state emitters have emerged as promising candidates with their prospects for on-chip integration as quantum nodes and sources of coherent photons connecting these nodes. Under a strongly driving resonant laser field, such quantum emitters can exhibit quantum behaviour such as Autler-Townes splitting and the Mollow triplet spectrum. Here we demonstrate coherent control of a strongly driven optical transition in silicon vacancy centre in diamond. Rapid optical detection of photons enabled the observation of time-resolved coherent Rabi oscillations and the Mollow triplet spectrum. Detection with a probing transition further confirmed Autler-Townes splitting generated by a strong laser field. The coherence time of the emitted photons is comparable to its lifetime and robust under a very strong driving field, which is promising for the generation of indistinguishable photons.