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Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Theory of nuclear spin dephasing and relaxation by optically illuminated nitrogen vacancy center

Ping Wang, Wen Yang

Published Mar 17, 2016• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Dephasing and relaxation of the nuclear spins coupled to the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center during optical initialization and readout is an important issue for various applications of this hybrid quantum register. Here we present both an analytical description and a numerical simulation for this process, which agree reasonably with the experimental measurements. For an NV center under cyclic optical transition, our analytical formulas not only provide a clear physical picture, but also allow control of the nuclear spin dissipation by tuning an external magnetic field. For more general optical pumping, our analytical formulas reveal a significant contribution to the nuclear spin dissipation due to electron random hopping into/out of the m = 0 (or ) subspace. This contribution is not suppressed, even under saturated optical pumping and/or vanishing magnetic field, thus providing a possible solution to the puzzling observation of nuclear spin dephasing in zero perpendicular magnetic field Dutt et al (2007 Science 316 1312). It also implies that enhancing the degree of optical spin polarization of the nitrogen-vacancy center can reduce the effect of optically induced nuclear spin dissipation.

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Theory of nuclear spin dephasing and relaxation by optically illuminated nitrogen-vacancy center

Ping Wang, Wen Yang

Dephasing and relaxation of the nuclear spins coupled to the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center during optical initialization and readout is an important issue for various applications of this hybrid quantum register. Here we present both an analytical description and a numerical simulation for this process, which agree reasonably with the experimental measurements. For an NV center under cyclic optical transition, our analytical formulas not only provide a clear physical picture, but also allow control of the nuclear spin dissipation by tuning an external magnetic field. For more general optical pumping, our analytical formulas reveal a significant contribution to the nuclear spin dissipation due to electron random hopping into/out of the m = 0 (or ) subspace. This contribution is not suppressed, even under saturated optical pumping and/or vanishing magnetic field, thus providing a possible solution to the puzzling observation of nuclear spin dephasing in zero perpendicular magnetic field Dutt et al (2007 Science 316 1312 ). It also implies that enhancing the degree of optical spin polarization of the nitrogen-vacancy center can reduce the effect of optically induced nuclear spin dissipation.

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Dephasing and relaxation of the nuclear spins coupled to the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center during optical initialization and readout is an important issue for various applications of this hybrid quantum register. Here we present both an analytical description and a numerical simulation for this process, which agree reasonably with the experimental measurements. For an NV center under cyclic optical transition, our analytical formulas not only provide a clear physical picture, but also allow control of the nuclear spin dissipation by tuning an external magnetic field. For more general optical pumping, our analytical formulas reveal a significant contribution to the nuclear spin dissipation due to electron random hopping into/out of the m = 0 (or ) subspace. This contribution is not suppressed, even under saturated optical pumping and/or vanishing magnetic field, thus providing a possible solution to the puzzling observation of nuclear spin dephasing in zero perpendicular magnetic field Dutt et al (2007 Science 316 1312). It also implies that enhancing the degree of optical spin polarization of the nitrogen-vacancy center can reduce the effect of optically induced nuclear spin dissipation.
Dephasing and relaxation of the nuclear spins coupled to the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center during optical initialization and readout is an important issue for various applications of this hybrid quantum register. Here we present both an analytical description and a numerical simulation for this process, which agree reasonably with the experimental measurements. For an NV center under cyclic optical transition, our analytical formulas not only provide a clear physical picture, but also allow control of the nuclear spin dissipation by tuning an external magnetic field. For more general optical pumping, our analytical formulas reveal a significant contribution to the nuclear spin dissipation due to electron random hopping into/out of the m = 0 (or ) subspace. This contribution is not suppressed, even under saturated optical pumping and/or vanishing magnetic field, thus providing a possible solution to the puzzling observation of nuclear spin dephasing in zero perpendicular magnetic field Dutt et al (2007 Science 316 1312 ). It also implies that enhancing the degree of optical spin polarization of the nitrogen-vacancy center can reduce the effect of optically induced nuclear spin dissipation.
Initializing quantum registers with high fidelity is a fundamental precondition for many applications like quantum information processing and sensing. The electronic and nuclear spins of a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond form an interesting hybrid quantum register that can be initialized by a combination of laser, microwave, and radio-frequency pulses. However, the laser illumination, which is necessary for achieving electron spin polarization, also has the unwanted side effect of depolarizing the nuclear spin. Here we study how the depolarization dynamics of the 14N^{14}\mathrm{N}14N nuclear spin depends on the laser wavelength. We show experimentally that excitation with an orange laser (594 nm) causes significantly less nuclear spin depolarization compared to the green laser (532 nm) typically used for excitation and hence leads to higher nuclear spin polarization. This could be because orange light excitation inhibits ionization of NV0{\mathrm{NV}}^{0}NV0 into ${\mathrm{NV}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ and therefore suppresses one source of noise acting on the nuclear spin.
Abstract Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center ensembles in diamond are one of the most promising solid-state quantum platforms for various sensing applications. Achieving ultimate sensitivity requires simultaneously long spin dephasing times ( T2∗{T}_{2}^{* }T2∗​ T 2 * ) and high NV center concentrations. In this work, we propose a systematic measurement approach to quantify the electron spin dephasing in NV center ensembles and analyze the contributions of various sources to the dephasing time, including NV-NV interactions, strain and electric field distributions, 13 C nuclear spins, and P1 electron spins. Our method is validated using a series of high-performance diamond samples, providing a comprehensive understanding of dephasing mechanisms and revealing correlations between NV concentration and different dephasing sources. Building on these insights, we outline strategies to further enhance the achievable sensitivity for DC magnetic field measurements.
Initializing a set of qubits to a given quantum state is a basic prerequisite for the physical implementation of quantum-information protocols. Here, we discuss the polarization of the electronic and nuclear spin in a single nitrogen vacancy center in diamond. Our initialization scheme uses a sequence of laser, microwave and radio-frequency pulses, and we optimize the pumping parameters of the laser pulse. A rate equation model is formulated that explains the effect of the laser pulse on the spin system. We have experimentally determined the population of the relevant spin states as a function of the duration of the laser pulse by measuring Rabi oscillations and Ramsey-type free-induction decays. The experimental data have been analyzed to determine the pumping rates of the rate equation model.
For quantum sensing, it is vital to develop an efficient technique for determining the quantum state of the sensor. We optimize the weighting of the photoluminescence intensity for readout of the spin state of the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. We find that adopting a physical model that considers the optical transitions and relaxations of the NV center allows for an efficient readout. Our method improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the readout by 5.4% in a short time of 3 s, while the existing methods typically require 1 min of integration time. We also show that our technique enhances the readout of the nuclear spin memory. The demonstrated way is helpful for a wide range of measurements, from a few minutes to several days.