All optical control of a single electron spin in diamond

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates all-optical control of a single NV center's electron spin in diamond at cryogenic temperatures, enabling advanced quantum applications like sensing and information processing.

Contribution

It introduces a method for all-optical initialization, manipulation, and readout of NV center spins, including the discovery of a double-dark resonance in their spectroscopy.

Findings

Successful all-optical spin control at 7K

Observation of a double-dark resonance in NV centers

Potential for quantum sensing and information processing

Abstract

Precise coherent control of the individual electronic spins associated with atom-like impurities in the solid state is essential for applications in quantum information processing and quantum metrology. We demonstrate all-optical initialization, fast coherent manipulation, and readout of the electronic spin of the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV$^-$) center in diamond at T$\sim$7K. We then present the observation of a novel double-dark resonance in the spectroscopy of an individual NV center. These techniques open the door for new applications ranging from robust manipulation of spin states using geometric quantum gates to quantum sensing and information processing.