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Physical Review Applied

Diamond Radio Receiver: Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers as Fluorescent Transducers of Microwave Signals

Linbo Shao, Mian Zhang, Matthew Markham, Andrew Mark Edmonds, Marko Lončar

Published Dec 15, 2016• 35 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The nitrogen-vacancy (N-$V$) center is a lattice defect in diamond, consisting of a substitutional nitrogen atom and an adjacent vacancy. This study exploits the electron-spin-dependent photoluminescence of N-$V$ centers to use them as radio receivers. The centers transduce frequency-modulated (FM) microwave radio signals to amplitude-modulated (AM) optical fluorescence signals. This effect has potential for photonics, quantum information processing, microwave applications, and wireless communication, even in extreme environments.

DOI
10.1103/physrevapplied.6.064008

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arXiv:2006.11878•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Sep 1, 2020•26 citations
The nitrogen-vacancy (N-VVV) center is a lattice defect in diamond, consisting of a substitutional nitrogen atom and an adjacent vacancy. This study exploits the electron-spin-dependent photoluminescence of N-VVV centers to use them as radio receivers. The centers transduce frequency-modulated (FM) microwave radio signals to amplitude-modulated (AM) optical fluorescence signals. This effect has potential for photonics, quantum information processing, microwave applications, and wireless communication, even in extreme environments.
Diamond based quantum sensing is a fast-emerging field with both scientific and technological significance. The nitrogen–vacancy (NV) center, a crystal defect in diamond, has become a unique object for microwave sensing applications due to its excellent stability, long spin coherence time, and optical properties at ambient condition. In this work, we use diamond NV center as atomic receiver to demodulate on–off keying (OOK) signal transmitted in broad frequency range (2 GHz–14 GHz in a portable benchtop setup). We proposed a unique algorithm of voltage discrimination and demonstrated audio signal transceiving with fidelity above 99%. This diamond receiver is attached to the end of a tapered fiber, having all optic nature, which will find important applications in data transmission tasks under extreme conditions such as strong electromagnetic interference, high temperatures, and high corrosion.
Microwave (MW) magnetometry utilizing nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond offers a broad, tunable detection bandwidth enabled by the magnetic-field-dependent electron spin resonances (ESR) of the NV centers. In this work, we present and experimentally demonstrate two NV-based protocols for spectral analysis of amplitude-modulated (MW) signals. The first protocol employs the NV center as a bandpass filter and reconstructs frequency-domain information of MW signals by sweeping the MW carrier frequency. The second protocol achieves optical imaging of the MW spectrum using an NV-based quantum spectrum analyzer, wherein a magnetic field gradient spatially maps the ESR frequencies of the NV centers, enabling parallel detection of multiple spectral components over a wide instantaneous bandwidth. Both protocols show results that agree well with reference measurements from a classical spectrum analyzer. Our approaches extend the application of spin-based quantum sensors to the field of modern communications and can be adapted for other spin-based quantum sensors.
The nitrogen-vacancy center (NV) is a diamond spin defect consisting of a nitrogen atom and a carbon vacancy in two adjacent positions of the diamond lattice. Its remarkable spin-dependent optical properties make it a promising platform for quantum sensing and quantum information applications.In the present manuscript, two applications involving an ensemble of NV centers in diamond are investigated: a radio frequency (RF) spectrum analyser and a widefield imaging technique of the RF radiation emitted in near field by microwave devices.In the first chapter, the NV centers in diamond, their properties and the motivations behind the two NV centers based applications proposed in this manuscript are presented. The available solutions and the state-of-the-art techniques for both RF spectral analysis and near field imaging of RF radiation are reviewed and the potential of alternative solutions using NV centres are discussed.In the second chapter, a set-up for the widefield optical detection of the NV centers spin resonances is presented and used to investigate the main properties of this diamond defect. The NV center electron spin resonances are detected over a large frequency range (more than 10 GHz) and different phenomena are investigated: the behaviour of an ensemble of NV centers under a static magnetic field, the polarization properties of the NV center photoluminescence (PL) and how they can be exploited to recognise the NV centers orientations, the NV’s nitrogen nuclear spin polarization over a large frequency range (more than 2 GHz).The third chapter is devoted to the implementation of a real-time RF spectrum analyser based on an ensemble of NV centers. The main physical features of NV centers considered as MW detectors are investigated and an experimental architecture which allows a real time RF spectral analysis over a tuneable frequency range (10 MHz to 25 GHz), 4 GHz bandwidth, a MHz frequency resolution and a ms time resolution is demonstrated. The implementation of this device required an interesting analysis on the behaviour of an ensemble of NV centers under strong magnetic field gradient (tens of Tesla per meter) which is detailed in the chapter.The fourth and last chapter deals with the widefield imaging of RF field based on an ensemble of NV centers. Two techniques are proposed. The first is based on the RF power broadening of the NV center spin resonances in the continuous regime domain while the second is based on the widefield detection of NV centers Rabi oscillations in a pulsed regime. Both techniques allowed reconstructing the magnetic near field RF field emitted by a loop antenna. However, while the first technique requires a calibration to retrieve the amplitude of the RF field, the second allows a direct measurement of it. The widefield detection of the NV centers Rabi oscillations has thus been investigated both by means of experiments and simulations. Since the NV centers Rabi oscillations detected using our widefield experimental set-up showed an asymmetric shape, a model has been realized to figure out the NV centers behaviour during the pulse sequence employed to drive the Rabi oscillation. The results of the simulations, in agreement with the experimental results, enable to have a better insight of the NV center spin optical polarization and readout during the widefield detection of the Rabi oscillations.
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect centers in diamond have generated much interest for their uses in quantum information and sensing. Despite the ongoing improvements in sensitivity and the range of new applications, much about the NV basic physics remains unresolved, which is important to understand in order to fully exploit potential uses. In this work I describe a series of experiments on NV basic properties, applications, and projects in between. First, I describe an NV singlet absorption spectroscopy experiment, which searched for additional NV electronic states and studied the 1A1 phonon modes. Next, I discuss an NV microwave saturation spectroscopy experiment, which is useful for NV thermometry, removes inhomogeneous broadening, and can yield information about diamond magnetic spin bath dynamics. I then describe an NV relaxation experiment that senses GHz-frequency magnetic noise, which we demonstrated using paramagnetic substitutional nitrogen (P1) centers. Finally, I describe open questions on the NV singlet states, saturation spectroscopy, and relaxation (and how to address them), and report on my ongoing work on using NVs for nuclear polarization and rotation sensing.
The silicon-vacancy (SiV) and nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are commonly regarded as prototypical defects for solid-state quantum information processing. Here, we show that when silicon and nitrogen are simultaneously introduced into the diamond lattice, these defects can strongly interact and form larger complexes. Nitrogen atoms strongly bind to Si and SiV centers, and complex formation can occur. Using a combination of hybrid density functional theory and group theory, we analyze the electronic structure and provide various useful physical properties, such as hyperfine structure, quasilocal vibrational modes, and a zero-phonon line, to enable experimental identification of these complexes. We demonstrate that the presence of substitutional silicon adjacent to nitrogen significantly shifts the donor level toward the conduction band, resulting in an activation energy for the SiN center that is comparable to phosphorus. We also find that the neutral SiNV center is of particular interest due to its photon emission at $\ensuremath{\sim}1530\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}$, which falls within the CCC band of telecom wavelengths and its paramagnetic nature. In addition, the optical transition associated with the SiNV0{\mathrm{SiNV}}^{0}SiNV0 color center exhibits very small electron-phonon coupling (Huang-Rhys factor = 0.78) resulting in high quantum efficiency (Debye-Waller factor = 46%) for single-photon emission. These features render this new center very attractive for a potential application in scalable quantum telecommunication networks.