Coupling a Surface Acoustic Wave to an Electron Spin in diamond via a Dark State

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the coupling of a surface acoustic wave to an electron spin in diamond via a dark state, enabling quantum control of spin and mechanical states for quantum computing applications.

Contribution

The study introduces an experimental platform coupling SAWs to electron spins in diamond through a dark state, advancing quantum acoustics and spin control techniques.

Findings

Achieved coherent population trapping between SAW and spin states

Demonstrated optically-driven spin transitions similar to trapped ion sidebands

Established a platform bridging spintronics and quantum acoustics

Abstract

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.