2017/06/30 by Young-Ik Sohn, Srujan Meesala, Benjamin Pingault +17 · 158 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) #Coupling (piping) #Diamond #Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Phonon #Quantum #Quantum decoherence #Qubit #Spin (aerodynamics) #Thermal #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04340-3
published in Nature Communications 9(1), 2012 (Nature Portfolio) · 11 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2018/01/31 · openalex created_date 2018/02/23 · openalex publication_date 2018/05/16 · arxiv updated 2018/07/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The uncontrolled interaction of a quantum system with its environment is detrimental for quantum coherence. For quantum bits in the solid state, decoherence from thermal vibrations of the surrounding lattice can typically only be suppressed by lowering the temperature of operation. Here, we use a nano-electro-mechanical system to mitigate the effect of thermal phonons on a spin qubit - the silicon-vacancy colour centre in diamond - without changing the system temperature. By controlling the strain environment of the colour centre, we tune its electronic levels to probe, control, and eventually suppress the interaction of its spin with the thermal bath. Strain control provides both large tunability of the optical transitions and significantly improved spin coherence. Finally, our findings indicate the possibility to achieve strong coupling between the silicon-vacancy spin and single phonons, which can lead to the realisation of phonon-mediated quantum gates and nonlinear quantum phononics.