Sohn, Young I.; Meesala, Srujan; Pingault, Benjamin; Atikian, Haig A.; Holzgrafe, Jeffrey; Gündoǧan, Mustafa; Stavrakas, Camille; Stanley, Megan J.; Sipahigil, Alp; Choi, Joonhee; Zhang, Mian; Pacheco, Jose L.; Abraham, John; Bielejec, Edward S.; Lukin, Mikhail D.; Atatüre, Mete; Lončar, Marko
The uncontrolled interaction of a quantum system with its environment is detrimental for quantum coherence. For quantum bits in the solid state, decoherence from thermal vibrations of the surrounding lattice can typically only be suppressed by lowering the temperature of operation. Here, we use a nano-electro-mechanical system to mitigate the effect of thermal phonons on a spin qubit - the silicon-vacancy colour centre in diamond - without changing the system temperature. By controlling the strain environment of the colour centre, we tune its electronic levels to probe, control, and eventually suppress the interaction of its spin with the thermal bath. Strain control provides both large tunability of the optical transitions and significantly improved spin coherence. Finally, our findings indicate the possibility to achieve strong coupling between the silicon-vacancy spin and single phonons, which can lead to the realisation of phonon-mediated quantum gates and nonlinear quantum phononics.
Our goal was to develop an integrated platform for electrical control of SiV defects in diamond. The understanding and techniques we discover for electrical control have direct relevance for scalable color center based devices. More fundamentally, they can serve as a basis for developing diamond light sources and exploring color center transitions previously understood as inaccessible. While we did not meet all these goals we did develop a unique set of capabilities that allowed Sandia to distinct itself both internally and through continuing external collaborations.