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Arbitrary Gates on the Double Transition of NV Ground State for Low Field or High Frequency Sensing

López García, Alberto, Cerrillo Moreno, Javier

Published Jul 22, 2024• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The NV-ERC technique for control of the NV ground state exploits the spin-1 nature of the system to best initialize the double-quantum transition. It has been proven to be a crucial control strategy for low field or high frequency sensing. Beyond initialization and readout, the scheme to perform 𝜋 rotations in the transition was inefficient for low intensity pulses. We present a complete theoretical picture of the strategy and demonstrate a mechanism for fast arbitrary unitaries in the double quantum transition. We show it is a robust approach with respect to pulse strength inaccuracies even in the presence of unexpected electric or strain fields.

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arXiv:2501.18244•Jan 30, 2025•0 citations
The NV-ERC technique for control of the NV ground state exploits the spin-1 nature of the system to best initialize the double-quantum transition. It has been proven to be a crucial control strategy for low field or high frequency sensing. Beyond initialization and readout, the scheme to perform 𝜋 rotations in the transition was inefficient for low intensity pulses. We present a complete theoretical picture of the strategy and demonstrate a mechanism for fast arbitrary unitaries in the double quantum transition. We show it is a robust approach with respect to pulse strength inaccuracies even in the presence of unexpected electric or strain fields.
Microwave control of the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond is usually based on a two-level approximation of its ground state that is only valid in the regime of high bias magnetic fields or low microwave power. We present the NV-ERC technique, which has demonstrated efficient initialization and readout of the double quantum transition with no leakage to any third level, thanks to an effective Raman coupling. The protocol may be used in the low-field regime and for high-frequency sensing. Furthermore, we propose a scheme to perform fast single-qubit gates in the double quantum transition, consisting of pulse trains of constant frequency and intensity. We analyze its robustness with respect to pulse-timing errors resulting from inaccurate identification of system parameters or phase-control limitations. We also demonstrate that the technique can be implemented in the presence of unknown electric or strain fields.
Abstract We present a scheme for the implementation of fast arbitrary qubit gates in the ground state of the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond. The protocol is especially useful for sensing in two regimes: on the one hand, in the low-field limit where the Zeeman splitting of the NV-center is smaller than the MW Rabi frequency; on the other hand, for the detection of high-frequency signals, comparable to the Zeeman splitting of the NV center. It constitutes an extension to the NV-ERC technique, which has demonstrated efficient initialization and readout of the double quantum transition with no leakage to any third level thanks to an effective Raman coupling. Here we derive a full theoretical framework of the scheme, identifying the complete unitary associated to the approach, and more specifically the relevant basis transformation for each of two characteristic pulse durations. Based on this insight, we propose a scheme to perform fast single qubit gates in the double quantum transition. We study its robustness with respect to pulse-timing errors resulting from faulty identification of system parameters or phase-control limitations. We finally demonstrate that the technique can also be implemented in the presence of unknown electric or strain fields and numerically test its effectiveness in a Hahn echo sequence in the high-frequency or low-field regime.
We present a scheme for the implementation of fast arbitrary qubit gates in the ground state of the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond [1]. The protocol is especially useful for sensing in two regimes: on the one hand, in the low-field limit where the Zeeman splitting of the NV-center is smaller than the MW Rabi frequency; on the other hand, for the detection of high-frequecy signals, comparable to the Zeeman splitting of the NV-center. It constitutes an extension to the NV-ERC technique [2, 3], which has demonstrated efficient initialization and readout of the double quantum transition with no leakage to any third level thanks to an effective Raman coupling. Here we derive a full theoretical framework of the scheme, identifying the complete unitary associated to the approach, and more specifically the relevant basis transformation for each of two characteristic pulse durations. Based on this insight, we propose a scheme to perform fast single qubit gates in the double quantum transition. We study its robustness with respect to pulse-timing errors resulting from faulty identification of system parameters or phase-control limitations. We finally demonstrate that the technique can also be implemented in the presence of unknown electric or strain fields and numerically test its effectiveness in a Hahn echo sequence in the high-frequency or low-field regime.
The ground state of the negatively charged NV center forms a spin-1 manifold providing a versatile platform for sensing and information processing. Here we present a scheme for implementing fast arbitrary qutrit gates in the low-field regime using monochromatic microwave pulses of constant intensity tuned to the zero-field transition. By concatenating pulses with appropriate phases and durations, the NV-ERC scheme is extended from SU(2) operations in the double-quantum subspace to the full three-level structure. We show that arbitrary SU(3) operations can be decomposed into rotations in the double-quantum subspace together with effective implementations of the generators related to λ^5\hatλ_5λ^5​ and λ^8\hatλ_8λ^8​. We illustrate this decomposition with a use case: performing quantum state tomography of the complete three-level density matrix.
The negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond has established itself as a promising quantum sensing platform with applications in nuclear magnetic resonance at the nanoscale. Still, control protocols are not yet optimized to work in all imaginable regimes. We present the NV-ERC technique, which has demonstrated efficient initialization and readout of the double quantum transition with no leakage to any third level thanks to an effective Raman coupling. The protocol is especially useful in the low-field regime and for high-frequency sensing applications. Based on this insight, we propose a scheme to perform fast single qubit gates in the double quantum transition. We study its robustness with respect to pulse-timing errors resulting from faulty identification of system parameters or phase-control limitations. We demonstrate that the technique can also be implemented in the presence of unknown electric or strain fields.
Entanglement is a key quantum feature that enables quantum sensors to improve their sensitivity up to the Heisenberg limit. In the NV center platform, the Heisenberg limit can only be achieved when the axes of the NV centers are parallel. Nevertheless, parallel NV centers are spectrally indistinguishable and no mechanisms to directly prepare Heisenberg--limit--grade entanglement in such configurations are known to date. In this work we propose for the first time a viable mechanism to prepare entangled states in the double quantum transition of two dipolarly coupled NV centers whose axes are parallel without populating intermediate states, so as to reach the Heisenberg limit in sensing. Our approach is based on the NV effective Raman coupling (NV-ERC) protocol and makes use of global addressing of both NV centers with a single monochromatic microwave pulse. Supported by an adiabatic elimination analysis, several mechanisms for the preparation of different entangled states are identified, all of which avoid the involvement of intermediate states. This not only minimizes the impact of additional noise sources, but also enables the state generation process itself to serve as effective sensing time--an advantage over conventional approaches where such preparation typically constitutes a separate, non--contributory stage. We consider the generation of different entangled states belonging to the double quantum transition, sensitive to either transverse electric fields or longitudinal magnetic fields, all with a fourfold improved sensitivity compared to conventional single NV settings.