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arXiv:1709.04852 · Physical Review A

Quantum microwave-optical interface with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond

Bo Li, Fuli Li, Yuan Zhou, Sheng-li Ma, Fuli Li

Published Sep 29, 2017• 51 citations
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Abstract

We propose an efficient scheme for a coherent quantum interface between microwave and optical photons using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. In this setup, an NV center ensemble is simultaneously coupled to an optical and a microwave cavity. We show that, by using the collective spin excitation modes as an intermediary, quantum states can be transferred between the microwave cavity and the optical cavity through either a double-swap scheme or a dark-state protocol. This hybrid quantum interface may provide interesting applications in single microwave photon detections or quantum information processing.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.96.032342

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We propose an efficient scheme for a coherent quantum interface between microwave and optical photons using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. In this setup, an NV center ensemble is simultaneously coupled to an optical and a microwave cavity. We show that, by using the collective spin excitation modes as an intermediary, quantum states can be transferred between the microwave cavity and the optical cavity through either a double-swap scheme or a dark-state protocol. This hybrid quantum interface may provide interesting applications in single microwave photon detections or quantum information processing.
Research into hybrid quantum systems is of great interest for quantum information processing; however, a key challenge is finding a controlled interface between a superconducting circuit and a lone solid-state qubit. The authors design a coherent quantum interface between a microwave cavity and a single nitrogen-vacancy center in a mechanical resonator made of diamond. Here the coupling between the quantized motion of the diamond beam and the cavity photons is due to dielectric interaction, not the traditional capacitive coupling, and is scalable to large arrays of resonators for e.g. a memory chip.
Quantum conversion between microwave and optical photons is an important area of quantum information science and technology. Here we propose a one-step method to realize a coherent conversion between a microwave cavity and an optical cavity utilizing a nitrogen-vacancy center ensemble (NV ensemble). An NV ensemble considered here acts as a quantum transducer, dispersively coupled to the microwave and optical cavities, enabling transfer of the quantum state and generating entangled states between microwave and optical cavities. With state-of-the-art technology, the numerical simulation is performed to demonstrate that cat states and Fock states can be high-fidelity transferred and a maximally entangled state can be efficiently synthesized between microwave and optical cavities.
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.
Hybrid quantum circuits combining advantages of each individual system have provided a promising platform for quantum information processing. Here we propose an experimental scheme to directly couple a transmon qubit to an individual spin in the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center, with a coupling strength three orders of magnitude larger than that for a single spin coupled to a coplanar waveguide microwave cavity. This direct coupling between the transmon and the NV center could be utilized to make a transmon bus, leading to a coherently virtual exchange among different single spins. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, by coupling a transmon to a low-density NV ensemble, a swap operation between the transmon and NV ensemble is feasible and a quantum nondemolition measurement on the state of the NV ensemble can be realized on the cavity-transmon-NV-ensemble hybrid system. Moreover, in this system, a virtual coupling can be achieved between the cavity and NV ensemble, which is much larger in magnitude than the direct coupling between the cavity and the NV ensemble. The photon state in the cavity can thus be stored into NV spins more efficiently through this virtual coupling.
We propose a scheme for detecting single microwave photons using dipole-induced transparency (DIT) in an optical cavity resonantly coupled to a spin-selective transition of a negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV−) defect in diamond crystal lattices. In this scheme, the microwave photons control the interaction of the optical cavity with the NV− center by addressing the spin state of the defect. The spin, in turn, is measured with high fidelity by counting the number of reflected photons when the cavity is probed by resonant laser light. To evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme, we derive the governing master equation and solve it through both direct integration and the Monte Carlo approach. Using these numerical simulations, we then investigate the effects of different parameters on the detection performance and find their corresponding optimized values. Our results indicate that detection efficiencies approaching 90% and fidelities exceeding 90% could be achieved when using realistic optical and microwave cavity parameters.
We propose an efficient scheme for transferring quantum states and generating entangled states between two qubits of different nature. The hybrid system consists of a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center and a superconducting (SC) qubit, which couple to an optical cavity and a microwave resonator, respectively. Meanwhile, the optical cavity and the microwave resonator are coupled via the electro-optic effect. By adjusting the relative parameters, we can achieve high-fidelity quantum state transfer as well as highly entangled states between the NV center and the SC qubit. This protocol is within the reach of currently available techniques, and may provide interesting applications in quantum communication and computation with single NV centers and SC qubits.