Spin-phonon interfaces in coupled nanomechanical cantilevers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the experimental coupling of solid-state spins to the shared vibrational modes of coupled nanomechanical cantilevers, enabling long-range spin interactions and potential quantum information applications at ambient conditions.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of coherently interfacing spins with coupled nanomechanical oscillators and mapping mechanical motion to spin polarization.

Findings

Spins are correlated with the common modes of coupled cantilevers.

Ultra-low forces from one oscillator can influence distant spins.

Analysis suggests potential for entanglement generation among distant spins.

Abstract

Coupled micro- and nanomechanical oscillators are of fundamental and technical interest for emerging quantum technologies. Upon interfacing with long-lived solid-state spins, the coherent manipulation of the quantum hybrid system becomes possible even at ambient conditions. While, the ability of these systems to act as a quantum bus inducing long-range spin-spin interactions has been known, the possibility to coherently couple electron/nuclear spins to the common modes of multiple oscillators and map their mechanical motion to spin-polarization has not been experimentally demonstrated. We here report experiments on interfacing spins to the common modes of a coupled cantilever system, and show their correlation by translating ultra-low forces induced by radiation from one oscillator to a distant spin. Further, we analyze the coherent spin-spin coupling induced by the common modes and estimate the entanglement generation among distant spins.