Spectral hole burning and its application in microwave photonics
Stefan Putz, Andreas Angerer, Dmitry O. Krimer +5 more
Rabi oscillations with a decay time of 26.7 μs are observed in a system comprising the electron spins in a diamond nitrogen–vacancy centre and a superconducting microwave cavity. Such oscillations are achieved by engineering the spectral hole burning of the spin ensemble. Spectral hole burning, used in inhomogeneously broadened emitters, is a well-established optical1 technique, with applications from spectroscopy to slow light2 and frequency combs3. In microwave photonics4, electron spin ensembles5,6 are candidates for use as quantum memories7 with potentially long storage times8. Here, we demonstrate long-lived collective dark states9 by spectral hole burning in the microwave regime10. The coherence time in our hybrid quantum system (nitrogen–vacancy centres strongly coupled to a superconducting microwave cavity) becomes longer than both the ensemble's free-induction decay and the bare cavity dissipation rate. The hybrid quantum system thus performs better than its individual subcomponents. This opens the way for long-lived quantum multimode memories, solid-state microwave frequency combs, spin squeezed states11, optical-to-microwave quantum transducers12 and novel metamaterials13. Beyond these, new cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments will be possible where spin–spin interactions and many-body phenomena14 are directly accessible.
Bulletin of the American Physical Society•Mar 14, 2017•1 citation