2016/08/03 by D. Andrew Golter, Thein Oo, Mayra Amezcua +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #quant-ph #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevx.6.041060
published as Phys. Rev. X 6, 041060 (2016)
arxiv created 2016/08/03 · arxiv updated 2016/12/28
The emerging field of quantum acoustics explores interactions between acoustic waves and artificial atoms and their applications in quantum information processing. In this experimental study, we demonstrate the coupling between a surface acoustic wave (SAW) and an electron spin in diamond by taking advantage of the strong strain coupling of the excited states of a nitrogen vacancy center, while avoiding the short lifetime of these states. The SAW-spin coupling takes place through a lamda-type three-level system where two ground spin states couple to a common excited state through a phonon-assisted as well as a direct dipole optical transition. Both coherent population trapping and optically-driven spin transitions have been realized. The coherent population trapping demonstrates the coupling between a SAW and an electron spin coherence through a dark state. The optically-driven spin transitions, which resemble the sideband transitions in a trapped ion system, can enable the quantum control of both spin and mechanical degrees of freedom and potentially a trapped-ion-like solid state system for applications in quantum computing. These results establish an experimental platform for spin-based quantum acoustic, bridging the gap between spintronics and quantum acoustics.