No Arabic abstract
We present experimental observations and a study of quantum dynamics of strongly interacting electronic spins, at room temperature in the solid state. In a diamond substrate, a single nitrogen vacancy (NV) center coherently interacts with two adjacent S = 1/2 dark electron spins. We quantify NV-electron and electron-electron couplings via detailed spectroscopy, with good agreement to a model of strongly interacting spins. The electron-electron coupling enables an observation of coherent flip-flop dynamics between electronic spins in the solid state, which occur conditionally on the state of the NV. Finally, as a demonstration of coherent control, we selectively couple and transfer polarization between the NV and the pair of electron spins. These results demonstrate a key step towards full quantum control of electronic spin registers in room temperature solids.
We achieve the strong coupling regime between an ensemble of phosphorus donor spins in a highly enriched $^{28}$Si crystal and a 3D dielectric resonator. Spins were polarized beyond Boltzmann equilibrium using spin selective optical excitation of the no-phonon bound exciton transition resulting in $N$ = $3.6cdot10^{13}$ unpaired spins in the ensemble. We observed a normal mode splitting of the spin ensemble-cavity polariton resonances of 2$gsqrt{N}$ = 580 kHz (where each spin is coupled with strength $g$) in a cavity with a quality factor of 75,000 ($gamma ll kappa approx$ 60 kHz where $gamma$ and $kappa$ are the spin dephasing and cavity loss rates, respectively). The spin ensemble has a long dephasing time (T$_2^*$ = 9 $mu$s) providing a wide window for viewing the dynamics of the coupled spin ensemble-cavity system. The free induction decay shows up to a dozen collapses and revivals revealing a coherent exchange of excitations between the superradiant state of the spin ensemble and the cavity at the rate $gsqrt{N}$. The ensemble is found to evolve as a single large pseudospin according to the Tavis-Cummings model due to minimal inhomogeneous broadening and uniform spin-cavity coupling. We demonstrate independent control of the total spin and the initial Z-projection of the psuedospin using optical excitation and microwave manipulation respectively. We vary the microwave excitation power to rotate the pseudospin on the Bloch sphere and observe a long delay in the onset of the superradiant emission as the pseudospin approaches full inversion. This delay is accompanied by an abrupt $pi$ phase shift in the peusdospin microwave emission. The scaling of this delay with the initial angle and the sudden phase shift are explained by the Tavis-Cummings model.
Recently we have demonstrated AC magnetic field sensing scheme using a simple continuous-wave optically detected magnetic resonance of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond [Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 082405 (2018)]. This scheme is based on electronic spin double resonance excited by continuous microwaves and radio-frequency (RF) fields. Here we measured and analyzed the double resonance spectra and magnetic field sensitivity for various frequencies of microwaves and RF fields. As a result, we observed a clear anticrossing of RF-dressed electronic spin states in the spectra and estimated the bandwidth to be approximately 5 MHz at the center frequency of 9.9 MHz.
NMR spin echo measurements of C-13 in C60, Y-89 in Y2O3, and Si-29 in silicon are shown to defy conventional expectations when more that one pi pulse is used. Multiple pi-pulse echo trains may either freeze our or accelerate the decay of the signal, depending on the pi-pulse phase. Average Hamiltonian theory, combined with exact quantum calculations, reveals an intrinsic cause for these coherent phenomena: the dipolar coupling has a many-body effect during any real, finite pulse.
We characterize the coherent dynamics of a two-level quantum emitter driven by a pair of symmetrically-detuned phase-locked pulses. The promise of dichromatic excitation is to spectrally isolate the excitation laser from the quantum emission, enabling background-free photon extraction from the emitter. Paradoxically, we find that excitation is not possible without spectral overlap between the exciting pulse and the quantum emitter transition for ideal two-level systems due to cancellation of the accumulated pulse area. However, any additional interactions that interfere with cancellation of the accumulated pulse area may lead to a finite stationary population inversion. Our spectroscopic results of a solid-state two-level system show that while coupling to lattice vibrations helps to improve the inversion efficiency up to 50% under symmetric driving, coherent population control and a larger amount of inversion are possible using asymmetric dichromatic excitation, which we achieve by adjusting the ratio of the intensities between the red and blue-detuned pulses. Our measured results, supported by simulations using a real-time path-integral method, offer a new perspective towards realising efficient, background-free photon generation and extraction.
Understanding symmetry-breaking states of materials is a major challenge in the modern physical sciences. Quantum atmosphere proposed recently sheds light on the hidden world of these symmetry broken patterns. But the requirements for exquisite sensitivity to the small shift and tremendous spatial resolution to local information pose huge obstacles to its experimental manifestation. In our experiment, we prepare time-reversal-symmetry conserved and broken quantum atmosphere of a single nuclear spin and successfully observe their symmetry properties. Our work proves in principle that finding symmetry patterns from quantum atmosphere is conceptually viable. It also opens up entirely new possibilities in the potential application of quantum sensing in material diagnosis.