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arXiv:1702.05822 · Physical Review Letters

Environmentally Mediated Coherent Control of a Spin Qubit in Diamond

Scott E. Lillie, David A. Broadway, James D. A. Wood, David Simpson, Alastair D. Stacey, Jean‐Philippe Tetienne, Lloyd C. L. Hollenberg

Published Apr 19, 2017• 14 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The coherent control of spin qubits forms the basis of many applications in quantum information processing and nanoscale sensing, imaging, and spectroscopy. Such control is conventionally achieved by direct driving of the qubit transition with a resonant global field, typically at microwave frequencies. Here we introduce an approach that relies on the resonant driving of nearby environment spins, whose localized magnetic field in turn drives the qubit when the environmental spin Rabi frequency matches the qubit resonance. This concept of environmentally mediated resonance (EMR) is explored experimentally using a qubit based on a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, with nearby electronic spins serving as the environmental mediators. We demonstrate EMR driven coherent control of the NV spin state, including the observation of Rabi oscillations, free induction decay, and spin echo. This technique also provides a way to probe the nanoscale environment of spin qubits, which we illustrate by acquisition of electron spin resonance spectra from single NV centers in various settings.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.118.167204

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The coherent control of spin qubits forms the basis of many applications in quantum information processing and nanoscale sensing, imaging, and spectroscopy. Such control is conventionally achieved by direct driving of the qubit transition with a resonant global field, typically at microwave frequencies. Here we introduce an approach that relies on the resonant driving of nearby environment spins, whose localized magnetic field in turn drives the qubit when the environmental spin Rabi frequency matches the qubit resonance. This concept of environmentally mediated resonance (EMR) is explored experimentally using a qubit based on a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, with nearby electronic spins serving as the environmental mediators. We demonstrate EMR driven coherent control of the NV spin state, including the observation of Rabi oscillations, free induction decay, and spin echo. This technique also provides a way to probe the nanoscale environment of spin qubits, which we illustrate by acquisition of electron spin resonance spectra from single NV centers in various settings.
We investigate coherent quantum control of a nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond with microwave fields generated from a nanoscale magnet that is proximal to the NV center. Our results show remarkable coherent control with high contrast Rabi oscillations using nearfield microwaves from shape anisotropic nanomagnets of lateral dimensions down to 200 nm x 180 nm, driven remotely by surface acoustic wave (SAW) excitation that is at least 400 times and potentially 4 orders of magnitude more energy efficient than generating microwaves with an antenna. Furthermore, we show that varying the acoustic power driving such nanomagnets can achieve control over Rabi frequency. We also report spin-lattice relaxation time T1 is 103 +/-0.5 micro-seconds, the spin-spin relaxation time T2 is 1.23+/-0.29 micro-seconds, and the Ramsey coherence time T2* is 218+/-27 nanoseconds measured using microwave pulses generated by such nanomagnets. The use of the nanoscale magnets to implement highly localized and energy efficient coherent quantum control can replace thermally noisy microwave circuits and demonstrate a path to scalable quantum computing and sensing with NV-defects in diamond and other spin qubits.
Electronic spin defects in the environment of an optically active spin can be used to increase the size and hence the performance of solid-state quantum registers, especially for applications in quantum metrology and quantum communication. Previous works on multiqubit electronic spin registers in the environment of a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond have only included spins directly coupled to the NV. As this direct coupling is limited by the central spin coherence time, it significantly restricts the maximum attainable size of the register. To address this problem, we present a scalable approach to increase the size of electronic spin registers. Our approach exploits a weakly coupled probe spin together with double-resonance control sequences to mediate the transfer of spin polarization between the central NV spin and an environmental spin that is not directly coupled to it. We experimentally realize this approach to demonstrate the detection and coherent control of an unknown electronic spin outside the coherence limit of a central NV. Our work paves the way for engineering larger quantum spin registers with the potential to advance nanoscale sensing, enable correlated noise spectroscopy for error correction, and facilitate the realization of spin-chain quantum wires for quantum communication. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Abstract Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers, optically active atomic defects in diamond, have attracted tremendous interest for quantum sensing, network, and computing applications due to their excellent quantum coherence and remarkable versatility in a real, ambient environment. One of the critical challenges to develop NV-based quantum operation platforms results from the difficulty in locally addressing the quantum spin states of individual NV spins in a scalable, energy-efficient manner. Here, we report electrical control of the coherent spin rotation rate of a single-spin qubit in NV-magnet based hybrid quantum systems. By utilizing electrically generated spin currents, we are able to achieve efficient tuning of magnetic damping and the amplitude of the dipole fields generated by a micrometer-sized resonant magnet, enabling electrical control of the Rabi oscillation frequency of NV spins. Our results highlight the potential of NV centers in designing functional hybrid solid-state systems for next-generation quantum-information technologies. The demonstrated coupling between the NV centers and the propagating spin waves harbored by a magnetic insulator further points to the possibility to establish macroscale entanglement between distant spin qubits.
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.
Quantum computing holds the potential to outperform classical computing in certain complicated tasks by leveraging qubits and their manipulation through quantum gates. A compelling platform to physically realize qubits and their control is the Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) center in diamond, where Rabi oscillation of spin qubit enables effective quantum operations. However, a significant challenge lies in mitigating qubit decoherence caused by external factors. Hence, this paper reports on the experimental demonstration of Rabi oscillation of spin qubit in NV center in diamond, focusing on investigating the impact of magnetic field and noises. Experiments conducted using CIQTEK Diamond Quantum Computer for Education (CIQTEK is a China quantum company) reveal that the magnetic field significantly impacts the resonant frequency which must align with the microwave pulse to observe clear Rabi oscillations. However, despite careful frequency tuning, noises from several sources lead to qubit decoherence, disrupting Rabi oscillations and causing them to decay over time. These results provide insights into key factors affecting qubit performance, paving the way in developing strategies to minimize decoherence.
An efficient interface between a spin qubit and single photons is a key enabling system for quantum science and technology. We report on a coherently controlled diamond nitrogen-vacancy center electron spin qubit that is optically interfaced with an open microcavity. Through Purcell enhancement and an asymmetric cavity design, we achieve efficient collection of resonant photons, while on-chip microwave lines allow for spin qubit control at a 10 MHz Rabi frequency. With the microcavity tuned to resonance with the nitrogen-vacancy center’s optical transition, we use excited state lifetime measurements to determine a Purcell factor of 7.3 ± 1.6. Upon pulsed resonant excitation, we find a coherent photon detection probability of 0.5% per pulse. Although this result is limited by the finite excitation probability, it already presents an order of magnitude improvement over the solid immersion lens devices used in previous quantum network demonstrations. Furthermore, we use resonant optical pulses to initialize and read out the electron spin. By combining the efficient interface with spin qubit control, we generate two-qubit and three-qubit spin-photon states and measure heralded Z-basis correlations between the photonic time-bin qubits and the spin qubit. Current applications of NV centers in diamond as spin-photon interfaces for quantum networks are limited by low coherent photon emission. Here, the authors integrate a coherently controlled NV spin qubit with an open microcavity to achieve Purcell-enhanced emission and demonstrate spin-photon state generation.