All-optical initialization, readout, and coherent preparation of single silicon-vacancy spins in diamond

Abstract

The silicon-vacancy (${\mathrm{SiV}}^{-}$) color center in diamond has attracted attention due to its unique optical properties. It exhibits spectral stability and indistinguishability that facilitate efficient generation of photons capable of demonstrating quantum interference. Here we show high fidelity optical initialization and readout of electronic spin in a single ${\mathrm{SiV}}^{-}$ center with a spin relaxation time of $T_1=2.4\pm 0.2$ ms. Coherent population trapping (CPT) is used to demonstrate coherent preparation of dark superposition states with a spin coherence time of $T_2^{\star }=35\pm 3$ ns. This is fundamentally limited by orbital relaxation, and an understanding of this process opens the way to extend coherences by engineering interactions with phonons. These results establish the ${\mathrm{SiV}}^{-}$ center as a solid-state spin-photon interface.

9 pages, 8 figures

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Electron-phonon processes of the silicon-vacancy centre in diamond
• All-optical formation of coherent dark states of silicon-vacancy spins in diamond
• All-optical coherent population trapping with defect spin ensembles in silicon carbide