Ultra-high strained diamond spin register with coherent optical link

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an ultra-high strained silicon-vacancy center in diamond that enables coherent control of electron and nuclear spins with high-speed optical links, advancing quantum networking technology.

Contribution

It introduces a method to coherently control and read out nuclear spins in a strained silicon-vacancy center, achieving GHz-rate optical control for quantum registers.

Findings

Coherent control of electron spins in strained silicon-vacancy centers.

Single-shot nuclear spin readout achieved.

GHz-rate optical control demonstrated.

Abstract

Solid-state spin defects, such as color centers in diamond, are among the most promising candidates for scalable and integrated quantum technologies. In particular, the good optical properties of silicon-vacancy centers in diamond combined with naturally occurring and exceptionally coherent nuclear spins serve as a building block for quantum networking applications. Here, we show that leveraging an ultra-high strained silicon-vacancy center inside a nanodiamond allows us to coherently and efficiently control its electron spin, while mitigating phonon-induced dephasing at liquid helium temperature. Moreover, we indirectly control and characterize a 13C nuclear spin and establish a quantum register. We overcome limited nuclear spin initialization by implementing single-shot nuclear spin readout. Lastly, we demonstrate coherent optical control with GHz rates, thus connecting the register to the optical domain. Our work paves the way for future integration of quantum network registers into conventional, well-established photonics and hybrid quantum communication systems.