Dissipation-assisted spin squeezing of nitrogen-vacancy centers coupled to a rectangular hollow metallic waveguide.

This thesis is concerned with studies involving quantum sensing based on Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) center in diamond. Essentially, it attempts to address two important problems. First, enhancing the sensitivity of a single NV center to external static magnetic fields, and second, probing the phase transitions in a soft condensed matter system using a near surface NV center. NV center’s sensitivity to time-varying or AC external magnetic fields is in the range of a few nanotesla and is limited by coherence time of NV. For various applications, including the bio-magnetic measurements, it is necessary to sense nearly static or DC fields rather than the AC fields. However, in diamond samples with natural abundance 13C concentration (1.1%), the best reported sensitivity to DC fields is in microtesla range and is limited by short lived spin dephasing time of NV. In the present work, a novel hybrid magnetometer consisting of a ferromagnetic material and a single NV center is utilized to achieve DC field sensitivity down to tens of nanotesla. The ferromagnetic material exhibits a property known Giant magneto-impedance (GMI) and is sensitive to DC fields under certain conditions. The achievable sensitivity of GMI sensors is in the range of picotesla. By positioning a GMI microwire in close vicinity of a NV center, magnetic interaction between the microwire and NV center can be realized. In the presence of minute changes in the DC fields in the surroundings, the GMI wire responds and encodes information to the NV center. By employing a standard magnetometry sequence on NV this information can be readout. As the sequence relies on long lived NV coherence time, its overall sensitivity could be enhanced by over two orders of magnitude. Second study deals with detecting the temperature driven phase transitions in a soft matter system, namely a liquid crystal (LC) material. The chosen LC material shows distinct ordered phases close to room temperature. By varying the temperature, transitions from solid-like phases to liquid-like phases in a thin layer of LC can be induced. The NV sensors located at a few nm depths detect these transitions in terms of changes in the spin noise signal emanating from nanoscopic volumes containing LC molecules above the diamond surface. Temperature plays a key role in determining the soft matter properties. Since NV centers are also known as nanoscale temperature sensors, it is possible to tune the temperature precisely to the transition points. This way, NV based method is demonstrated as a dual mode sensing for studying soft matter systems at nanoscale, with a control over temperature. The work aims at extending NV centers as novel probes for exploring soft matter systems and address some important questions in that area.

Charge state control by band engineering

With their ability to process and transfer quantum information, large-scale entanglement-based quantum networks could be at the heart of a new age of quantum information, enabling fundamentally new applications such as distributed quantum computation, quantum communication, and quantum enhanced sensing. Due to their long spin coherence, controllable local qubit registers and optically active spins, color centers in diamond are prime candidates for nodes of such a network, and have enabled some of the most advanced quantum network demonstrations to date. These demonstrations include the distribution of a 3-node GHZ state across a quantum network, entanglement swapping, entanglement distillation, and memory-enhanced quantum communication. To move beyond current proof-of-principle networks, a further increase of entanglement generation rates is crucial. This thesis presents theoretical and experimental work on enhancing the spin-photon interface of color centers in diamond to achieve this goal, making use of the Purcell effect. The discussed work follows two main directions: embedding of color centers in open, tuneable Fabry-Perot micro-cavities, and in all-diamond photonic crystal cavities. First, we describe theoretical and experimental progress towards cavity-enhanced quantum networks based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. Due to their first order sensitivity to electric fields, we choose to embed NV centers in microns-thin diamond membranes that can be integrated into open fiber-based micro-cavities. We develop analytical methods to optimize the design of such open cavity systems for maximum Purcell enhancement of embedded color centers. We demonstrate a method to fabricate optically coherent NV centers in microns-thin diamond membranes, and use such structures to demonstrate the resonant excitation and detection of coherent, Purcell enhanced NV emission. A theoretical model in excellent agreement with our results suggests our system can improve entanglement rates between distant NV centers by two orders of magnitude with near-term improvements to the setup. Second, we describe progress towards an efficient spin-photon interface of group-IV color centers in diamond by coupling them to photonic nanostructures, allowing for large-scale integration. Due to their first-order insensitivity to electric fields, group-IV color centers can be brought in close proximity to surfaces (~ 100 nm), allowing for sub-wavelength mode volumes and thus very high Purcell factors. We numerically optimize photonic crystal cavity designs to maximize the Purcell enhancement of embedded emitters, test the robustness of our designs to real-world fabrication imperfections, and devise a method to efficiently interface nanophotonic structures. We then proceed to fabricate all-diamond photonic crystal cavities, making use of a dry etching technique that is selective to different crystallographic directions, and characterize the resulting optical quality factors. Finally, we marry the developed fabrication methods to fabricate microns-sized diamond platelets that can be transferred from a holding frame in a controlled fashion. This capability could be crucial for the realization of hybrid photonic circuits that we expect to be at the heart of future large-scale quantum networks.

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have been used as platforms for quantum information, magnetometry and imaging of microwave (MW) fields. The spatial distribution of the MW fields used to drive the electron spin of NV centers plays a key role for these applications. Here, we report a system for the control and characterization of MW magnetic fields used for the NV spin manipulation. The control of the MW field in the vicinity of a diamond surface is mediated by an exchangeable lumped resonator, coupled inductively to a MW planar ring antenna. The characterization of the MW fields in the near-field is performed by an FFT imaging of Rabi oscillations, by using an ensemble of NV centers. We have found that the Rabi frequency over a lumped resonator is enhanced 22 times compared to the Rabi frequency without the presence of the lumped resonator. Our system may find applications in quantum information and magnetometry where a precise and controlled spin manipulation is required, showing NV centers as good candidates for imaging MW fields and characterization of MW devices.

The nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond has emerged as a leading solid-state quantum sensor for applications including magnetometry, electrometry, thermometry, and chemical sensing. However, an outstanding challenge for practical applications is that existing NV-based sensing techniques require bulky and discrete instruments for spin control and detection. Here, we address this challenge by integrating NV based quantum sensing with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Through tailored CMOS-integrated microwave generation and photodetection, this work dramatically reduces the instrumentation footprint for quantum magnetometry and thermometry. This hybrid diamond-CMOS integration enables an ultra-compact and scalable platform for quantum sensing and quantum information processing.

We propose an efficient scheme for transferring quantum states and generating\nentangled states between two qubits of different nature. The hybrid system\nconsists a single nitrogen vacancy (NV) center and a superconducting (SC)\nqubit, which couple to an optical cavity and a microwave resonator,\nrespectively. Meanwhile, the optical cavity and the microwave resonator are\ncoupled via the electro-optic effect. By adjusting the relative parameters, we\ncan achieve high fidelity quantum state transfer as well as highly entangled\nstates between the NV center and the SC qubit. This protocol is within the\nreach of currently available techniques, and may provide interesting\napplications in quantum communication and computation with single NV centers\nand SC qubits.\n

We present a special quantum effect named electromagnetically induced squeezing of atomic spin in the conventional Λ-type atomic system driven by a strong pump field and a relatively weak probe field in an atomic ensemble. Nearly perfect atomic spin squeezing in the y component can be achieved with fully on resonance at high pump-field intensity, large optical depth of the atomic ensemble, and a low coherence decay rate between the two lower levels. This method would greatly facilitate the generation of atomic spin squeezing by using only coherent laser fields, and may find potential applications in realistic quantum metrology, quantum computation, and quantum information processing.

Single-molecule nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a crown-jewel challenge in the field of magnetic resonance spectroscopy and has important applications in chemical analysis and in quantum computing. Recently, it becomes possible to tackle this grand challenge thanks to experimental advances in preserving quantum coherence of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center spins in diamond as a sensitive probe and theoretical proposals on atomic-scale magnetometry via dynamical decoupling control. Through decoherence measurement of NV centers under dynamical decoupling control, sensing of single $^{13}\textbf{C}$ at nanometer distance has been realized. Toward the ultimate goal of structure analysis of single molecules, it is highly desirable to directly measure the interactions within single nuclear spin clusters. Here we sensed a single $^{13}\textbf{C}$-$^{13}\textbf{C}$ nuclear spin dimer located about 1 nm from the NV center and characterized the interaction between the two nuclear spins, by measuring NV center spin decoherence under various dynamical decoupling control. From the measured interaction we derived the spatial configuration of the dimer with atomic-scale resolution. These results demonstrate that central spin decoherence under dynamical decoupling control is a feasible probe for NMR structure analysis of single molecules.

The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is very sensitive to magnetic and electric fields, strain, and temperature. In addition, it is possible to optically interrogate individual defects, making it an ideal quantum-limited sensor with nanoscale resolution. A key limitation for the application of NV sensing is the optical brightness and collection efficiency of these defects. Plasmonic resonances of metal nanoparticles have been used in a variety of applications to increase the brightness and efficiency of quantum emitters, and therefore are a promising tool to improve NV sensing. However, the interaction between NV centers and plasmonic structures is largely unexplored. In particular, the back-action between NV and plasmonic nanoparticles is nonlinear and depends on optical wavelength, nanoparticle position, and metal type. Here we present the general theory of NV-plasmonic nanoparticle interactions. We detail how the interplay between NV response, including optical and vibrational signatures, and the plasmonic response of the metal nanoparticle results in modifications to the emission spectra. Our model is able to explain quantitatively the existing experimental measurements of NV centers near metal nanoparticles. In addition, it provides a pathway to developing new plasmonic structures to improve readout efficiencies in a range of applications for the NV center. This will enable higher precision sensors, with greater bandwidth as well as new readout modalities for quantum computing and communication.

We investigate the entanglement generation between two nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond nanocrystal coupled to a high-Q counterpropagating twin whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) of a microtoroidal resonator. For looking into the degree and dynamics of the entanglement, we calculate the concurrence using the microscopic master equation approach. The influences of the coupling strength between the WGMs (or the size of the two spherical NV centers), the distance between two NV centers, the frequency detuning between the NV center and microresonator, and the initial state of the system on the dynamics of concurrence are discussed in detail. It is found that the maximum entanglement between the two NV centers can be created by properly adjusting these controllable system parameters. Our results may provide further insight into future solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED) system for quantum information engineering.

We show that the robust spin squeezing preservation can be achieved by utilizing detuning modification for an ensemble of N separate two-level atoms embedded in photonic crystal cavities (PCC). In particular, we explore the different dynamical behaviors of spin squeezing between isotropic and anisotropic PCC cases when the atomic frequency is inside the band gap. In both cases, it is shown that the robust preservation of spin squeezing is completely determined by the formation of bound states. Intriguingly, we find that unlike the isotropic case where steady-state spin squeezing varies smoothly when the atomic frequency moves from the inside to the outside band edge, a sudden transition occurs for the anisotropic case. The present results may be of direct importance for, e.g. quantum metrology in open quantum systems.

Bistability and steady-state spin squeezing in diamond nanostructures controlled by a nanomechanical resonator

In solid-state systems, spin squeezing states have acquired much interest in quantum information processing since they are not only essential from a basic physics standpoint but also have many applications, notably reducing noise in interferometry. This paper addresses the study of quantum nonlocality as examined by the violation of the Bell and Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt (CHSH) inequality in two classes of spin squeezing states and how this relates to the quantum-memory-assisted entropic uncertainty relation (QMA–EUR). The spin squeezing states in the two classes are systematically generated by two twisting nonlinear interactions. These separately describe two spin-[Formula: see text] interaction mechanisms that undergo one-axis twisting (OAT) and two-axis countertwisting (TAC). We investigate each spin squeezing mechanism in a thermal bath ([Formula: see text]) with a transverse magnetic field. Our main results indicate that the degree of violation of the Bell-CHSH inequality and the entropic uncertainty relation (EUR) is typically anticorrelated in both mechanisms. We demonstrate that the spin squeezing states in the OAT mechanism violate the Bell-CHSH inequality and thus exhibit Bell nonlocality only at low temperatures ([Formula: see text]), whereas in the TAC mechanism, increasing the strength of the spin squeezing interaction leads to a violation of the Bell-CHSH inequality even at finite temperatures. We have also shown that there is always an expansion of the EUR and a decrease in the degree of violation of the Bell-CHSH inequality in the high-temperature regime. In addition, the transverse magnetic field exhibits different behavior under the considered temperature regimes in the two classes of spin squeezing states. Other results will also be discussed.

In the paper, we present schemes for implementing multi-qubit quantum gates in quantum networks based on the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. In our schemes, NV centers coupled to the whispering-gallery modes of microtoroidal resonators serve as quantum registers to store quantum information. By coding the qubits of NV centers into decoherence-free subspaces, quantum information encoded in logical qubits is protected from collective dephasing, and quantum controlled-NOT and Toffoli gates between logical qubits from the same or different quantum nodes can be implemented. Compared with the previous works, our schemes are simpler and reduce the consumption of resources. Furthermore, the modularized design of multi-qubit quantum gates can be extended to other quantum platforms, which may lead to more efficient construction of quantum networks for distributed quantum computation and quantum communication.

Abstract