The diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center is a leading platform for quantum information science due to its optical addressability and room-temperature spin coherence. However, measurements of the NV centers spin state typically require averaging over many cycles to overcome noise. Here, we review several approaches to improve the readout performance and highlight future avenues of research that could enable single-shot electron-spin readout at room temperature.
We utilize nonlinear absorption to design all-optical protocols that improve both charge state initialization and spin readout for the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. Non-monotonic variations in the equilibrium charge state as a function of visible and near-infrared (NIR) optical power are attributed to competing multiphoton absorption processes. In certain regimes, multicolor illumination enhances the steady-state population of the NVs negative charge state above 90%. At higher NIR intensities, selective ionization of the singlet manifold facilitates a protocol for spin-to-charge conversion that dramatically enhances the spin readout fidelity. We demonstrate a 6-fold increase in the signal-to-noise ratio for single-shot spin measurements and predict an orders-of-magnitude experimental speedup over traditional methods for emerging applications in magnetometry and quantum information science using NV spins.
Machine learning is a powerful tool in finding hidden data patterns for quantum information processing. Here, we introduce this method into the optical readout of electron-spin states in diamond via single-photon collection and demonstrate improved readout precision at room temperature. The traditional method of summing photon counts in a time gate loses all the timing information crudely. We find that changing the gate width can only optimize the contrast or the state variance, not both. In comparison, machine learning adaptively learns from time-resolved fluorescence data, and offers the optimal data processing model that elaborately weights each time bin to maximize the extracted information. It is shown that our method can repair the processing result from imperfect data, reducing 7% in spin readout error while optimizing the contrast. Note that these improvements only involve recording photon time traces and consume no additional experimental time, they are thus robust and free. Our machine learning method implies a wide range of applications in precision measurement and optical detection of states.
Applications of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond exploit the centers unique optical and spin properties, which at ambient temperature, are predominately governed by electron-phonon interactions. Here, we investigate these interactions at ambient and elevated temperatures by observing the motional narrowing of the centers excited state spin resonances. We determine that the centers Jahn-Teller dynamics are much slower than currently believed and identify the vital role of symmetric phonon modes. Our results have pronounced implications for centers diverse applications (including quantum technology) and for understanding its fundamental properties.
We theoretically propose a method to realize optical nonreciprocity in rotating nano-diamond with a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center. Because of the relative motion of the NV center with respect to the propagating fields, the frequencies of the fields are shifted due to the Doppler effect. When the control and probe fields are incident to the NV center from the same direction, the two-photon resonance still holds as the Doppler shifts of the two fields are the same. Thus, due to the electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT), the probe light can pass through the NV center nearly without absorption. However, when the two fields propagate in opposite directions, the probe light can not effectively pass through the NV center as a result of the breakdown of two-photon resonance.
We demonstrate optical spin polarization of the neutrally-charged silicon-vacancy defect in diamond ($mathrm{SiV^{0}}$), an $S=1$ defect which emits with a zero-phonon line at 946 nm. The spin polarization is found to be most efficient under resonant excitation, but non-zero at below-resonant energies. We measure an ensemble spin coherence time $T_2>100~mathrm{mu s}$ at low-temperature, and a spin relaxation limit of $T_1>25~mathrm{s}$. Optical spin state initialization around 946 nm allows independent initialization of $mathrm{SiV^{0}}$ and $mathrm{NV^{-}}$ within the same optically-addressed volume, and $mathrm{SiV^{0}}$ emits within the telecoms downconversion band to 1550 nm: when combined with its high Debye-Waller factor, our initial results suggest that $mathrm{SiV^{0}}$ is a promising candidate for a long-range quantum communication technology.