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arXiv:2606.28935

Optically Switched Phonon Superradiance of Surface Acoustic Wave in Diamond

Zhiwei Chen, Changyong Lei, Jie Ren

cond-mat.mes-hallquant-phSubmitted Jun 27, 2026• Announced Jun 30, 2026
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) phonon coupling with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center spins in diamond offers a promising platform for on-chip quantum phononic manipulations. Although an ensemble of NV centers coupled to a common SAW phonon mode enables superradiance and collective quantum control, achieving a tunable superradiant phase transition remains challenging. Here, we show that optically driving NV centers level transitions enhances the effective spin-phonon coupling, triggering a SAW phonon superradiant phase transition in the weak-coupling regime. We also demonstrate that above a critical threshold, the driving light rapidly switches on the phonon superradiance--a dynamic effect that persists in finite-number NV ensembles. Our results provide a controllable route to coherent phonon-NV spin manipulation in solid state quantum devices.

Comments
11 pages, 7 figures

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Surface acoustic wave (SAW) phonon coupling with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center spins in diamond offers a promising platform for on-chip quantum phononic manipulations. Although an ensemble of NV centers coupled to a common SAW phonon mode enables superradiance and collective quantum control, achieving a tunable superradiant phase transition remains challenging. Here, we show that optically driving NV centers level transitions enhances the effective spin-phonon coupling, triggering a SAW phonon superradiant phase transition in the weak-coupling regime. We also demonstrate that above a critical threshold, the driving light rapidly switches on the phonon superradiance--a dynamic effect that persists in finite-number NV ensembles. Our results provide a controllable route to coherent phonon-NV spin manipulation in solid state quantum devices.
The Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centre in diamond possesses an optical read out of its spin state and shows great promise for applications in solid state quantum technologies. Its broad phonon assisted emission spectrum, with only 4% of emission from the zero-phonon line, is a major drawback to this. The optical microcavity will be essential in efficiently interfacing these centres with photonic networks. Here we present investigations into the coupling of NV centres in nanodiamond to tunable open-microcavities, both at room temperature and at cryogenic temperatures. These structures will be shown to achieve good photon confinement, with mode volumes down to 5λ3. Room temperature studies on ensembles of NVs will illustrate the tunable spectral and spatial overlap between the emitter and the cavity mode. It will be shown that small enhancements are possible in this regime. After the preparation and characterisation of single emitters, low temperature coupling to the narrowed zero-phonon line will be the central theme of this thesis. Single photon emission into the cavity mode is verified. We observe the enhancement of the light-matter interaction in this regime, by a 39% increase in the emission rate when cavity-coupled, with the dependence on mode volume also demonstrated. These results are important for the realisation of a spin-photon interface in scalable quantum networks.
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond has emerged as a versatile atom-like system, finding diverse applications at both ambient and cryogenic temperatures. At room temperature, the NV center's spin-triplet electronic ground state has a long coherence time and can be read out and initialized using nonresonant optical excitation, which has enabled a wide range of metrology and quantum information applications. At cryogenic temperatures, the NV center exhibits a variety of narrow, atom-like optical transitions, which has made the NV center a promising platform for quantum optics applications. We use coherent optical manipulation of the NV center at cryogenic temperatures to probe its internal dynamics and aspects of its interactions with its environment.\nFirst, we investigate the intersystem crossing (ISC) process, which is a spin-dependent nonradiative decay mechanism that enables the electronic spin state to be optically initialized and read out at room temperature. We measure the ISC rates from different excited states as well as the rate at which interactions with phonons redistribute population between these states. Based on these measurements, we develop a theoretical model that unifies the phonon-induced mixing and ISC mechanisms. We find that our model is in excellent agreement with experiment and that it can be used to predict unknown elements of the NV center's electronic structure.\nSecond, we investigate a novel method of using coherent optical manipulation of the NV center's electronic spin to control a nearby nuclear spin. Coherent interactions between the NV center and nearby nuclear spins have enabled the development of NV center-based, multi-qubit quantum registers, but these techniques have generally required the application of microwave or radio-frequency radiation. We demonstrate control of the nuclear spin using an all-optical Raman technique and theoretically evaluate the extent to which the intrinsic physics of the NV center limits the coherence of this Raman-based manipulation technique.
Skyrmions are competitive candidates for information-storage units and have great prospect in quantum information processing. We here study coherent control of a quantum skyrmion via surface acoustic wave (SAW) phonons in a piezoelectric SAW cavity. Exact diagonalization of a finite Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya cluster reveals the eigenstates of quantum skyrmion with robust scalar chirality. The underlying lattice-spin symmetry imposes polarization-dependent selection rules for the electromagnetic transitions between eigenstates states. Considering the small mode volume of the SAW phonon easy to reach strong coupling, we derive the interaction Hamiltonian between the quantum skyrmion as a qubit and a single-mode quantized SAW via the electric field induced by piezoelectric effect, and find that the coupling strength at the single-phonon level increases linearly with skyrmion radius. This enables enhanced spin-acoustic coupling for larger skyrmionic textures and for low magnetic dissipation. Our results establish few-spin quantum skyrmions as compact building blocks for hybrid quantum information processing and suggest a route toward more densely integrated on-chip quantum devices.
The Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centre in diamond possesses an optical read out of its spin state and shows great promise for applications in solid state quantum technologies. Its broad phonon assisted emission spectrum, with only 4p of emission from the zero-phonon line, is a major drawback to this. The optical microcavity will be essential in efficiently interfacing these centres with photonic networks. Here we present investigations into the coupling of NV centres in nanodiamond to tunable open-microcavities, both at room temperature and at cryogenic temperatures. These structures will be shown to achieve good photon confinement, with mode volumes down to 5λ3. Room temperature studies on ensembles of NVs will illustrate the tunable spectral and spatial overlap between the emitter and the cavity mode. It will be shown that small enhancements are possible in this regime. After the preparation and characterisation of single emitters, low temperature coupling to the narrowed zero-phonon line will be the central theme of this thesis. Single photon emission into the cavity mode is verified. We observe the enhancement of the light-matter interaction in this regime, by a 39p increase in the emission rate when cavity-coupled, with the dependence on mode volume also demonstrated. These results are important for the realisation of a spin-photon interface in scalable quantum networks.
As a result of study on surface acoustic waves (SAWs), we propose protocols for generating the quantum entanglement on phonons. In the protocol of phonon–photon entanglement generation, the hybrid system is composed of a surface acoustic wave resonator (SAWR), a superconducting resonator (SR) and a nitrogen-vacancy-center ensemble (NVE). For the generation of three phonon modes entanglement, the SAWRs are coupled to the corresponding NVEs, while the NVEs interact with the same SR. Both protocols exploit the resonant interaction and the dispersive coupling. By considering the decoherence of the corresponding systems, the fidelities of the phonon–photon entanglement and three phonon modes entanglement reach 99.35% and 91.01%, respectively. Generalizing the approaches, we also present the protocol of multiple phonon modes entanglement.
In a diamond, the mechanical vibration-induced strain can lead to interaction between the mechanical mode and the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. In this work, we propose to utilize the strain-induced coupling for the quantum non-demolition (QND) single phonon measurement and memory in a diamond. The single phonon in a diamond mechanical resonator can be perfectly absorbed and emitted by the NV centers ensemble (NVE) with adiabatically tuning the microwave driving. An optical laser drives the NVE to the excited states, which have much larger coupling strength to the mechanical mode. By adiabatically eliminating the excited states under large detuning limit, the effective coupling between the mechanical mode and the NVE can be used for QND measurement of the single phonon state. Under realistic experimental conditions, we numerically simulate the scheme. It is found that the fidelity of the absorbing and emitting process can reach a much high value. The overlap between the input and the output phonon shapes can reach 98.57%.