Decoherence of Nuclear Spins in the Proximity of Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Diamond

TL;DR

This study investigates nuclear spin decoherence near NV centers in diamond, combining simulations and experiments to reveal complex dynamics and introduce a new sensing modality, with broad applicability to quantum information processing.

Contribution

It provides a first-principles simulation framework for nuclear spin dynamics near NV centers and validates it with experimental data, uncovering new oscillatory behaviors and effects of electronic state hybridization.

Findings

Identification of nontrivial oscillations in Hahn echo signals

Demonstration of hybridization effects reducing nuclear coherence times

Introduction of a new dynamical-decoupling spectroscopy modality

Abstract

Nuclear spins in the proximity of electronic spin defects in solids are promising platforms for quantum information processing due to their ability to preserve quantum states for a remarkably long time. Here we report a comprehensive study of the nuclear decoherence processes in the vicinity of the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. We simulate from first principles the change in the dynamics of nuclear spins as a function of distance and state of the NV center and validate our results with experimental data. Our simulations reveal nontrivial oscillations in the Hahn echo signal, pointing to a new sensing modality of dynamical-decoupling spectroscopy, and show how hybridization of the electronic states suppresses the coherence time of strongly coupled nuclear spins. The computational framework developed in our work is general and can be broadly applied to predict the dynamical properties of nuclear spins.