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Coherent, Mechanical Control of a Single Electronic Spin

Article

Overview

Authors

  • Hong, Sungkun, Grinolds, Michael S., Maletinsky, Patrick, Walsworth, Ronald L., Lukin, Mikhail D. and Yacoby, Amir

Abstract

  • The ability to control and manipulate spins via electrical, magnetic and optical means has generated numerous applications in metrology and quantum information science in recent years. A promising alternative method for spin manipulation is the use of mechanical motion, where the oscillation of a mechanical resonator can be magnetically coupled to a spins magnetic dipole, which could enable scalable quantum information architectures9 and sensitive nanoscale magnetometry. To date, however, only population control of spins has been realized via classical motion of a mechanical resonator. Here, we demonstrate coherent mechanical control of an individual spin under ambient conditions using the driven motion of a mechanical resonator that is magnetically coupled to the electronic spin of a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in diamond. Coherent control of this hybrid mechanical/spin system is achieved by synchronizing pulsed spin-addressing protocols (involving optical and radiofrequency fields) to the motion of the driven oscillator, which allows coherent mechanical manipulation of both the population and phase of the spin via motion-induced Zeeman shifts of the NV spins energy. We demonstrate applications of this coherent mechanical spin-control technique to sensitive nanoscale scanning magnetometry.

Published In

Publication Date

  • 2012

Authors

Identity

Digital Object Identifier (doi)

Additional Document Info

Start Page

  • 3920

End Page

  • 3924

Volume

  • 12