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arXiv:1610.06630 · npj Quantum Information

Selective addressing of solid-state spins at the nanoscale via magnetic resonance frequency encoding

H. Zhang, Keigo Arai, Chinmay Belthangady, Jean-Christophe Jaskula, Ronald Lee Walsworth

Published Aug 9, 2017• 38 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The nitrogen vacancy centre in diamond is a leading platform for nanoscale sensing and imaging, as well as quantum information processing in the solid state. To date, individual control of two nitrogen vacancy electronic spins at the nanoscale has been demonstrated. However, a key challenge is to scale up such control to arrays of nitrogen vacancy spins. Here, we apply nanoscale magnetic resonance frequency encoding to realize site-selective addressing and coherent control of a four-site array of nitrogen vacancy spins. Sites in the array are separated by 100 nm, with each site containing multiple nitrogen vacancies separated by ~15 nm. Microcoils fabricated on the diamond chip provide electrically tuneable magnetic field gradients ~0.1 G/nm. Tailored application of gradient fields and resonant microwaves allow site-selective nitrogen vacancy spin manipulation and sensing applications, including Rabi oscillations, imaging, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with nanoscale resolution. Microcoil-based magnetic resonance of solid-state spins provides a practical platform for quantum-assisted sensing, quantum information processing, and the study of nanoscale spin networks.

DOI
10.1038/s41534-017-0033-3

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Abstract The nitrogen vacancy centre in diamond is a leading platform for nanoscale sensing and imaging, as well as quantum information processing in the solid state. To date, individual control of two nitrogen vacancy electronic spins at the nanoscale has been demonstrated. However, a key challenge is to scale up such control to arrays of nitrogen vacancy spins. Here, we apply nanoscale magnetic resonance frequency encoding to realize site-selective addressing and coherent control of a four-site array of nitrogen vacancy spins. Sites in the array are separated by 100 nm, with each site containing multiple nitrogen vacancies separated by ~15 nm. Microcoils fabricated on the diamond chip provide electrically tuneable magnetic field gradients ~0.1 G/nm. Tailored application of gradient fields and resonant microwaves allow site-selective nitrogen vacancy spin manipulation and sensing applications, including Rabi oscillations, imaging, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with nanoscale resolution. Microcoil-based magnetic resonance of solid-state spins provides a practical platform for quantum-assisted sensing, quantum information processing, and the study of nanoscale spin networks.
Numerous theoretical protocols have been developed for quantum information processing with dipole-coupled solid-state spins. Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have many of the desired properties, but a central challenge has been the positioning of NV centers at the nanometer scale that would allow for efficient and consistent dipolar couplings. Here we demonstrate a method for chip-scale fabrication of arrays of single NV centers with record spatial localization of about 10 nm in all three dimensions and controllable inter-NV spacing as small as 40 nm, which approaches the length scale of strong dipolar coupling. Our approach uses masked implantation of nitrogen through nanoapertures in a thin gold film, patterned via electron-beam lithography and dry etching. We verified the position and spin properties of the resulting NVs through wide-field super-resolution optically detected magnetic resonance imaging.
Numerous theoretical protocols have been developed for quantum information processing with dipole-coupled solid-state spins. Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have many of the desired properties, but a central challenge has been the positioning of NV centers at the nanometer scale that would allow for efficient and consistent dipolar couplings. Here we demonstrate a method for chip-scale fabrication of arrays of single NV centers with record spatial localization of about 10 nm in all three dimensions and controllable inter-NV spacing as small as 40 nm, which approaches the length scale of strong dipolar coupling. Our approach uses masked implantation of nitrogen through nanoapertures in a thin gold film, patterned via electron-beam lithography and dry etching. We verified the position and spin properties of the resulting NVs through wide-field super-resolution optically detected magnetic resonance imaging.
Solid-state spins in diamond are promising building blocks for quantum computing and quantum sensing, both of which require precise nanoscale addressing of individual spins. To explore the resolution limit of this approach, we demonstrate Fourier magnetic imaging of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond under state-of-the-art conditions. We constructed a highly compact experimental platform featuring thermal drift compensation under ambient conditions and generated a pulsed magnetic field gradient of up to 13.5 G/μμμm. By implementing the Fourier magnetic imaging protocol, we achieved localization of a single nitrogen-vacancy center with a spatial resolution of 0.28 ±\pm± 0.10 nm and a magnetic field measurement deviation of 9 nT. This technique holds potential for applications such as localizing spins within proteins and cells.
Nitrogen vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond are a leading modality for both superresolution optical imaging and nanoscale magnetic field sensing. In this work, we address the key challenge of performing optical magnetic imaging and spectroscopy selectively on multiple NV centers that are located within a diffraction-limited field-of-view. We use spin-RESOLFT microscopy to enable precision nanoscale mapping of magnetic field patterns with resolution down to ~20 nm, while employing a low power optical depletion beam. Moreover, we use a shallow NV to demonstrate the detection of proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals exterior to the diamond, with 50 nm lateral imaging resolution and without degrading the proton NMR linewidth.
Electron and nuclear spins of diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are good candidates for quantum information processing as they have long coherence time and can be initialized and read out optically. However, creating a large number of coherently coupled and individually addressable NV centers for quantum computing has been a big challenge. Here we propose methods to use high-density diamond NV centers coupled by spin-spin interaction with an average separation on the order of 10 nm for quantum computing. We propose to use a strain gradient to encode the position information of each NV center in the energy level of its excited electron orbital state, which causes a shift of its optical transition frequency. With such strain encoding, more than 100 closely-packed NV centers below optical diffraction limit can be read out individually by resonant optical excitation. A magnetic gradient will be used to shift the electron spin resonant (ESR) frequencies of NV centers. Therefore, the spin state of each NV center can be individually manipulated and different NV centers can be selectively coupled. A universal set of quantum operations for two-qubit and three-qubit system is introduced by careful design of external drives. Moreover, entangled states with multiple qubits can be created by this protocol, which is a major step towards quantum information processing with solid-state spins.
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have been used as platforms for quantum information, magnetometry and imaging of microwave (MW) fields. The spatial distribution of the MW fields used to drive the electron spin of NV centers plays a key role for these applications. Here, we report a system for the control and characterization of MW magnetic fields used for the NV spin manipulation. The control of the MW field in the vicinity of a diamond surface is mediated by an exchangeable lumped resonator, coupled inductively to a MW planar ring antenna. The characterization of the MW fields in the near-field is performed by an FFT imaging of Rabi oscillations, by using an ensemble of NV centers. We have found that the Rabi frequency over a lumped resonator is enhanced 22 times compared to the Rabi frequency without the presence of the lumped resonator. Our system may find applications in quantum information and magnetometry where a precise and controlled spin manipulation is required, showing NV centers as good candidates for imaging MW fields and characterization of MW devices.