Optomechanical Quantum Control of a Nitrogen Vacancy Center in Diamond

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates optomechanical quantum control of nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond, enabling manipulation of internal and motional states using surface acoustic waves and optical fields, akin to trapped ion systems.

Contribution

It introduces a method for quantum control of NV centers via resolved-sideband optomechanical coupling, combining optical and acoustic interactions in a solid-state platform.

Findings

Realized optomechanically-driven Rabi oscillations in NV centers.

Achieved quantum interference between optomechanical sideband and direct optical transitions.

Opened pathways for quantum control of internal and motional states in NV-nanomechanical systems.

Abstract

We demonstrate optomechanical quantum control of the internal electronic states of a diamond nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in the resolved-sideband regime by coupling the NV to both optical fields and surface acoustic waves via a phonon-assisted optical transition and by taking advantage of the strong excited-state electron-phonon coupling of a NV center. Optomechanically-driven Rabi oscillations as well as quantum interferences between the optomechanical sideband and the direct dipole-optical transitions have been realized. These studies open the door to using resolved-sideband optomechanical coupling for quantum control of both the atom-like internal states and the motional states of a coupled NV-nanomechanical system, leading to the development of a solid-state analog of trapped ions.