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arXiv:1610.01875 · Scientific Reports

Decoherence Control of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers

Chao Lei, Shijie Peng, Chenyong Ju, Man‐Hong Yung, Jiangfeng Du

Published Sep 14, 2017• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum mechanical systems lose coherence through interacting with external environments-a process known as decoherence. Although decoherence is detrimental for most of the tasks in quantum information processing, a substantial degree of decoherence is crucial for boosting the efficiency of quantum processes, for example, in quantum biology and other open systems. The key to the success in simulating those open quantum systems is therefore the ability of controlling decoherence, instead of eliminating it. Motivated by simulating quantum open systems with Nitrogen-Vacancy centers, which has become an increasingly important platform for quantum information processing tasks, we developed a new set of steering pulse sequences for controlling various coherence times of Nitrogen-Vacancy centers; our method is based on a hybrid approach that exploits ingredients in both digital and analog quantum simulations to dynamically couple or decouple the system with the physical environment. Our numerical simulations, based on experimentally-feasible parameters, indicate that decoherence of Nitrogen-Vacancy centers can be controlled externally to a very large extend.

DOI
10.1038/s41598-017-12280-z

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Quantum mechanical systems lose coherence through interacting with external environments-a process known as decoherence. Although decoherence is detrimental for most of the tasks in quantum information processing, a substantial degree of decoherence is crucial for boosting the efficiency of quantum processes, for example, in quantum biology and other open systems. The key to the success in simulating those open quantum systems is therefore the ability of controlling decoherence, instead of eliminating it. Motivated by simulating quantum open systems with Nitrogen-Vacancy centers, which has become an increasingly important platform for quantum information processing tasks, we developed a new set of steering pulse sequences for controlling various coherence times of Nitrogen-Vacancy centers; our method is based on a hybrid approach that exploits ingredients in both digital and analog quantum simulations to dynamically couple or decouple the system with the physical environment. Our numerical simulations, based on experimentally-feasible parameters, indicate that decoherence of Nitrogen-Vacancy centers can be controlled externally to a very large extend.
Abstract Owing to its remarkable optical properties and its ability to be controlled by microwave fields at room temperature, nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond has been a promising platform for various nanotechnological applications, e.g. quantum sensing and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The qubit associated with the NV centre ground state spin has been the key element for the realisation of such applications. Its coherence time determines the application performances, e.g. the sensitivity of the NV-qubit based quantum sensor. Due to unwanted and unavoidable interactions with noisy environment, the qubit undergoes decoherence that shortens its coherence time and hence reduces its application performance. Therefore, the investigation and mitigation of the decoherence of the NV qubit are of the utmost importance. Here, we simulate the qubit decoherence using Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process that is essential for designing a set of modulating control pulses to mitigate the effect.
The field of quantum science and technology has generated many ideas for new revolutionary devices that exploit the quantum mechanical properties of small-scale systems. Isolated solid state spins play a large role in quantum technologies. They can be used as basic building blocks for a quantum computer or as ultra-sensitive magnetic-field probes which can detect the extremely weak magnetic field generated by a single proton. A major hurdle for realizing these applications is the loss of quantum coherence resulting from uncontrolled interactions with spins in the environment. In the experiments described in my thesis we studied spins associated with defect centers in diamond and used new strategies for mitigating decoherence involving advanced quantum control techniques and for fundamental studies of decoherence. We show that we can prolong the coherence time of a single spin associated with a Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) defect center in diamond with dynamical decoupling techniques. Our experiments are accurately reproduced theoretically and from this theory we conclude that, with dynamically decoupling, the spin environment can in principle be made irrelevant for the decoherence of a single spin. This removes a major obstacle for using solid-state spins in quantum science and technology. Furthermore, the dynamics in the spin environment and its influence on the NV spin is thoroughly experimentally studied. By better understanding the mechanisms behind decoherence we may one day find the answer to unresolved fundamental issues in quantum physics such as the quantum measurement problem.
Quantum communication provides essentially secure transmission of information and quantum sensing provides measurement sensitivities better than classical. These powers come because of unique quantum processes, especially superposition and entanglement. Although there is a significant theoretical and experimental development, the phenomenon of decoherence is still one of the main limiting factors in performance and scalability of quantum devices. The importance of this study is that it considers an active approach to decoherence as one of the key impediments to scalable quantum technologies. Although the research on the noise sources and error mechanisms has been done extensively, the characterization is not enough to be applied to the real world. This study makes use of a theoretical and computation effort to explore scalable quantum technologies integrated decoherence control strategies. The research paper is based on the open quantum systems framework, in which quantum systems are represented as finite-dimensional systems that interact with the external environment. The findings of the study highlight that active decoherence control plays an important role in enhancing performance of open quantum systems. Without any control, the simulated quantum system is characterized by a fast decoherence time, coherence times are short, about 20 u ms, and the physical error rate is about 2.5%. The hybrid strategy is a feasible way to achieve fault-tolerant quantum operation and the transition point between theory-based control architectures and experimental hardware limitations, thus speeding up the development of reliable large-scale quantum technologies. The findings affirm that each of the isolated methods like dynamical decoupling, quantum error correction, or reservoir engineering can only be a partial solution when used alone. Adaptive and real-time control schemes responding dynamically to changing noise environments also require further research to develop them.
In recent years, the field of quantum sensing has garnered increasing attention due to its potential to revolutionize various scientific and technological domains. Among the different quantum sensors, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in diamond stands out for its ease of use, ability to be read out and initialized with a laser, and long coherence times even at room temperature. Over the past years, numerous quantum control sequences have been developed to successfully deploy NV sensors in diverse situations, such as measuring nearby spin clusters, classical AC signals, and static magnetic fields. However, the NV center faces limitations when coupling to high frequency signals. More specifically, as the frequency of the target signal increases, stronger driving fields over NVs are needed, ultimately reaching the limits of current experimental capabilities. In this thesis, we propose several protocols to address this high-frequency problem in different scenarios.
Quantum computing and quantum sensing have received much attention in recent years. As an atomic quantum system with super-long coherence time and spin-dependent optical transitions at room temperature, nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is one of the well-studied physical systems in quantum information science. In this review, we brief the working principles and quantum control techniques of this single spin system, and also several experimental demonstrations. We focus on the following points:1) coherent manipulation of single spins with optically detected magnetic resonance; 2) main mechanism of NV election spin decoherence and schemes of coherence protection; 3) quantum sensing and quantum computing applications of spin quantum control techniques. Some open questions are discussed at the end of this review.
In order to achieve reliable quantum-information processing results, we need to protect quantum gates along with the qubits from decoherence. Here we demonstrate experimentally on a nitrogen-vacancy system that by using a continuous-wave dynamical decoupling method, we might not only prolong the coherence time by about 20 times but also protect the quantum gates for the duration of the controlling time. This protocol shares the merits of retaining the superiority of prolonging the coherence time and at the same time easily combining with quantum logic tasks. This method can be useful in tasks where the duration of quantum controlling exceeds far beyond the dephasing time.