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All-Optical Formation of Coherent Dark States of Silicon-Vacancy Spins in Diamond

Benjamin Pingault, Jonas N. Becker, Carsten H. H. Schulte, Carsten Arend, Christian Hepp, Tillmann Godde, Alexander I. Tartakovskii, Matthew Markham, Christoph Becher, and Mete Atatüre
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 263601 – Published 22 December 2014
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Abstract

Spin impurities in diamond can be versatile tools for a wide range of solid-state-based quantum technologies, but finding spin impurities that offer sufficient quality in both photonic and spin properties remains a challenge for this pursuit. The silicon-vacancy center has recently attracted much interest because of its spin-accessible optical transitions and the quality of its optical spectrum. Complementing these properties, spin coherence is essential for the suitability of this center as a spin-photon quantum interface. Here, we report all-optical generation of coherent superpositions of spin states in the ground state of a negatively charged silicon-vacancy center using coherent population trapping. Our measurements reveal a characteristic spin coherence time, T2*, exceeding 45 nanoseconds at 4 K. We further investigate the role of phonon-mediated coupling between orbital states as a source of irreversible decoherence. Our results indicate the feasibility of all-optical coherent control of silicon-vacancy spins using ultrafast laser pulses.

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  • Received 14 September 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.263601

© 2014 American Physical Society

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Diamond Spins Shining Bright

Published 22 December 2014

The spin on a silicon defect in diamond can be prepared in a coherent quantum state, a promising sign that it could encode information in a quantum internet.

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Authors & Affiliations

Benjamin Pingault1, Jonas N. Becker2, Carsten H. H. Schulte1, Carsten Arend2, Christian Hepp1, Tillmann Godde3, Alexander I. Tartakovskii3, Matthew Markham4, Christoph Becher2,*, and Mete Atatüre1,†

  • 1Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
  • 2Fachrichtung 7.2 (Experimentalphysik), Universität des Saarlandes, Campus E2.6, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
  • 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom
  • 4Element Six Limited, Global Innovation Centre, Fermi Avenue, Harwell Oxford, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QR, United Kingdom

  • *christoph.becher@physik.uni-saarland.de
  • ma424@cam.ac.uk

See Also

All-Optical Initialization, Readout, and Coherent Preparation of Single Silicon-Vacancy Spins in Diamond

Lachlan J. Rogers, Kay D. Jahnke, Mathias H. Metsch, Alp Sipahigil, Jan M. Binder, Tokuyuki Teraji, Hitoshi Sumiya, Junichi Isoya, Mikhail D. Lukin, Philip Hemmer, and Fedor Jelezko
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 263602 (2014)

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Issue

Vol. 113, Iss. 26 — 31 December 2014

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