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.
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.
The nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond is a unique quantum system that combines solid state spin qubits with coherent optical transitions. The spin states of the NV center can be initialized, read out, and controlled with RF fields at room temperature. It can be coupled to other spin systems in the environment while at the same time maintaining an extraordinary degree of quantum coherence. Experiments utilizing the NV center's spin states have led to a wide range of demonstrations from quantum error correction to high-sensitivity magnetometry. This thesis, however, focuses on creating an interface between NV centers and light in the visible domain by making use of its optical transitions. Such an interface connects the quantum system consisting of NV centers and nuclear spins to photons, which can then be used to both manipulate the spin qubits themselves or transport quantum information over large distances.
The Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) center is becoming a promising qubit for quantum information processing. The defect has a long coherence time at room temperature and it allows spin state initialized and read out by laser and manipulated by microwave pulses. It has been utilized as a ultra sensitive probe for magnetic fields and remote spins as well. Here, we review the recent progresses in experimental demonstrations based on NV centers. We first introduce our work on implementation of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm with a single electronic spin in diamond. Then the quantum nature of the bath around the center spin is revealed and continuous wave dynamical decoupling has been demonstrated. By applying dynamical decoupling, a multi-pass quantum metrology protocol is realized to enhance phase estimation. In the final, we demonstrated NV center can be regarded as a ultra-sensitive sensor spin to implement nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging at nanoscale.
Abstract The controlled and coherent manipulation of individual quantum systems is fundamental for the development of quantum information processing. The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in diamond is a promising system since its photoluminescence is perfectly stable at room temperature and its electron spin can be optically read out at the individual level. We review here the experiments currently realized in our laboratory concerning the use of a single NV color center as the single photon source and the coherent magnetic manipulation of the electron spin associated with a single NV color center. Furthermore, we demonstrate a nanoscopy experiment based on the saturation absorption effect, which allows to optically pin-point a single NV color center at sub-λ resolution. This offers the possibility to independently address two or multiple magnetically coupled single NV color centers, which is a necessary step towards the realization of a diamond-based quantum computer.
Individual nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have recently emerged as a leading candidate for a building block for quantum information processing systems. Individual NV centers have many properties that are desirable for qubits. For example their spin states can be manipulated, initialized and measured even at room temperature. In order to build a quantum information processing system that consists of more than a single NV center, these individual NV centers have to be connected via quantum channels that distribute entanglement and allow quantum state transfer between NV centers. This thesis explores how the optical properties of the NV center can be used and manipulated to form these quantum channels. Likewise we show how the same properties can be used to better control the nuclear spin environment surrounding the NV center. We first introduce, review and experimentally study the relevant optical properties of the NV center. These quantum optical techniques are then used to experimentally demonstrate spin-photon entanglement between the electronic spin of an individual NV center and a single photon. We next demonstrate quantum interference of two photons produced by NV centers in distinct diamond samples separated by two meters. These two demonstrations pave the way for entanglement generation, leading to quantum channels, between remote NV centers. Finally we demonstrate optical cooling, real-time measurement and conditional preparation of the nuclear spin environment around an NV center using all-optical manipulation of its electronic spin. This technique can lead to better control of individual NV centers and thus more robust quantum information processing systems.
This work investigates the applicability of the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect center in diamond for quantum computation and metrology purposes. The NV center is a molecule like defect in the diamond lattice which is optically active and possesses an electron spin in its ground state. The spin can be used as a quantum bit and as a field sensor. The NV center has three major properties enabling individual control of single defects. Its optical properties depend on the spin state, the spin can be polarized optically and the spin state has an exceptionally long lifetime. Single NV centers can be controlled by optical and microwave radiation. Generally, the research on individually controllable quantum systems is not only motivated by quantum computation and communication. With the ongoing miniaturization nowadays electronic and electro-optic devices will soon reach the limit of single quantum building blocks. While in these applications the full complexity of single quantum systems might not be needed, small sensors based on single atoms or molecules might very well take advantage of the susceptibility of quantum coherences to environmental conditions. Major challenges for all approaches towards single quantum system control are the individual addressing, the measurement of the quantum state and the protection of quantum coherence from environmental noise. Today, there is a variety of systems (including the NV center) that allow control on the single quantum level. These are for example single photons, single ions and atoms in traps, single spins in semiconductors or single molecules in solid state systems. Rather mesoscopic examples are superconducting devices, nanomechanical oscillators or surface plasmon polaritons. Regarding the NV center it has been shown that the magnetic moment of its electron spin allows individual sensing and coupling to other surrounding electron and nuclear spins. Especially single nuclear spins were shown to be exceptional quantum memories. In this work small quantum registers of up to 5 spins have been used to test major requirements for a feasible quantum processor. Therefore, mainly artificially created high purity diamond samples with controlled spin and impurity concentration were used. The NV centers were either grown in or created via ion implantation techniques in a controlled fashion. As a first requirement for quantum computation entanglement among up to three spins has been generated and was verified by quantum state tomography. This proves the access of the full Hilbert space. Especially, entanglement among nuclear spins was very long-living. In further experiments this processor was used for first quantum algorithms like super-dense coding and the Deutsch algorithm. In addition, this work demonstrates new methods to initialize nuclear spin qubits into a desired quantum state. This is particularly important as improper initialization inhibits quantum computation. One of these methods is related to dynamic nuclear spin polarization and the other to measurement based state preparation. Nuclear spins in the diamond lattice originate mainly from the C-13 isotope. By artificially altering its content the influence on the NV center spin was investigated. The coherence times of the NV center were increasing inversely with the nuclear spin density. Even increasing nuclear spin density to offer more nuclear spin qubits to an operational quantum register was possible. As an alternative route of scaling up the quantum register pairs of closely spaced NV centers were investigated. For the first time two qubit gates among two NV centers mediated by magnetic dipolar coupling have been realized. Furthermore the sensing ability was demonstrated by measuring the relative distance of the two centers (10 nm) with sub-nm precision. Eventually, this work contains new insight into the electronically excited state of the NV center which allowed a more advanced control of the electron and nuclear spins. A comparably high magnetic field was used to decouple electron and nuclear spins. Finally, this allowed quantum nondemolition measurements on single nuclear spins which manifests in the observation of quantum jumps. The new insight was used to drastically improve the performance of quantum state readout. Summarizing, it was shown that single NV centers and proximal nuclear spins form versatile small quantum registers which can be interconnected with neighboring such NV quantum registers. Although the number of qubits used in this work is still small the experimental results propose a way of how to proceed when building a quantum computer. Regarding quantum metrology, however, the use of such a small register which can sense fields and store and process the results would already outperform a single NV electron spin by orders of magnitude.
Digital information based on the laws of quantum mechanics promisses powerful new ways of computation and communication. However, quantum information is very fragile; inevitable errors continuously build up and eventually all information is lost. Therefore, realistic large-scale quantum information processing requires the protection of quantum bits (qubits) against errors. In this thesis we present the experimental implementation of quantum error correction protocols based on spins in diamond. In such protocols, a quantum state is protected against errors by encoding in multiple qubits. Errors can be detected and corrected by measurement of correlations, so-called stabilizer-measurements, on these qubits.The experimental work presented in this thesis employs multiple spins in diamond as qubits to explore and implement error correction protocols. The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond is a lattice defect consisting of a nitrogen atom (N) and a vacancy (V) on two adjacent diamond lattice sites. This defect effectively results in an electronic spin that can be addressed as a qubit. The spin state can be manipulated by microwave fields and optically read out. At liquid helium temperatures (cryogenic temperature, ~4 K = -269 C), the NV electron spin provides high-fidelity single-shot readout and long coherence times.The NV centre is surrounded by naturally available (1.1% abundance) nuclear C13 spins. As the number of spins that are close enough to the NV centre to be strongly coupled is limited, we employ the weakly coupled nuclear spins in the spin bath of the NV centre. Using dynamical decoupling techniques these nuclear spins can be detected via the NV electron spin through the hyperfine interaction. The nuclear spins are long-lived and robust against optical excitation of the NV electron spin, which can make these spins a robust quantum register for quantum error correction.In Ch. 4 we demonstrate universal control over multiple of such weakly coupled nuclear C13 spins in the environment of the NV centre at ambient temperatures. We demonstrate initialization, control and read-out of individual nuclear spins. Finally, we implement a quantum error correction protocol by encoding a quantum state in the NV electron spin and two nuclear spins. Errors are detected by un-encoding the quantum state back to the electron spin and correction via a double controlled operation.For universal fault-tolerant quantum computations it is essential that the quantum information remains encoded at all times. In Ch. 5 we present multiple rounds of quantum error correction and active feedback on a continuously encoded qubit at cryogenic temperatures. A quantum state is protected by encoding in three weakly coupled spins. Errors are detected via high-fidelity non-demolition readout of the NV electron spin and actively corrected using fast classical electronics. We demonstrate that an actively error-corrected qubit is robust against phase flip errors and show that a superposition state can live longer than the best physical qubit in the encoding.The presented methods and results can be extended to a range of future experiments. In Ch. 6 we propose the implementation of five-qubit quantum error correction, the smallest code to correct for general single-qubit errors on the physical qubits in the encoding, by extending the experimental methods as developed in Chs. 4&5. Besides the exploration and development of larger error correction protocols and fault-tolerant quantum computing, the presented quantum register based in spins in diamond can be employed as a quantum node and combined with recent advances in the realization of quantum entanglement over large distances to form quantum networks. These networks can be used to study both fundamental questions as well as future applications in quantum information technology.