Nuclear spin polarization and control in a van der Waals material

Abstract

Van der Waals layered materials are a focus of materials research as they support strong quantum effects and can easily form heterostructures. Electron spins in van der Waals materials played crucial roles in many recent breakthroughs, including topological insulators, two-dimensional (2D) magnets, and spin liquids. However, nuclear spins in van der Waals materials remain an unexplored quantum resource. Here we report the first demonstration of optical polarization and coherent control of nuclear spins in a van der Waals material at room temperature. We use negatively-charged boron vacancy ($V_B^{-}$) spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride to polarize nearby nitrogen nuclear spins. Remarkably, we observe the Rabi frequency of nuclear spins at the excited-state level anti-crossing of $V_B^{-}$ defects to be 350 times larger than that of an isolated nucleus, and demonstrate fast coherent control of nuclear spins. We also detect strong electron-mediated nuclear-nuclear spin coupling that is 5 orders of magnitude larger than the direct nuclear spin dipolar coupling, enabling multi-qubit operations. Nitrogen nuclear spins in a triangle lattice will be suitable for large-scale quantum simulation. Our work opens a new frontier with nuclear spins in van der Waals materials for quantum information science and technology.

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• Excited-state optically detected magnetic resonance of spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride
• Excited-state spin-resonance spectroscopy of V${}_{\text{B}}^{-}$ defect centers in hexagonal boron nitride
• Electron-nuclear coherent coupling and nuclear spin readout through optically polarized VB- spin states in hBN
• Excited-state spectroscopy of spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride
• Quantum microscopy with van der Waals heterostructures

Cited by in corpus (40)

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• Mapping a 50-spin-qubit network through correlated sensing
• Single nuclear spin detection and control in a van der Waals material
• Isotope engineering for spin defects in van der Waals materials
• Isotopic control of the boron-vacancy spin defect in hexagonal boron nitride
• Sensing Spin Wave Excitations by Spin Defects in Few-Layer Thick Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• Quantum Optics Applications of Hexagonal Boron Nitride Defects
• Quantum sensing of paramagnetic spins in liquids with spin qubits in hexagonal boron nitride
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• Symmetry of the Hyperfine and Quadrupole Interactions of Boron Vacancies in a Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• Robust Nuclear Spin Polarization via Ground-State Level Anti-Crossing of Boron Vacancy Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• Optically detected magnetic resonance with an open source platform
• Measuring nuclear spin qubits by qudit-enhanced spectroscopy in Silicon Carbide
• Violet to near-infrared optical addressing of spin pairs in hexagonal boron nitride
• Manipulating the Charge State of Spin Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• Active spin lattice hyperpolarization: Application to hexagonal boron nitride color centers
• Temperature dependent spin-phonon coupling of boron-vacancy centers in hexagonal boron nitride
• Creation and Microscopic Origins of Single-Photon Emitters in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides and Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• Intrinsic high-fidelity spin polarization of charged vacancies in hexagonal boron nitride
• Coherent Spins in van der Waals Semiconductor GeS2 at Ambient Conditions
• Nitrogen isotope effects on boron vacancy quantum sensors in hexagonal boron nitride
• Coupling spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride to a microwave cavity
• Magnetic-field dependent VB- spin decoherence in hexagonal boron nitrides: A first-principles study
• Proximity-Induced Exchange Interaction: a New Pathway for Quantum Sensing using Spin Centers in Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• Quantum Sensing Enhancement through a Nuclear Spin Register in Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond
• Quantifying the creation of negatively charged boron vacancies in He-ion irradiated hexagonal boron nitride
• First-principles computational methods for quantum defects in two-dimensional materials: A perspective
• Room-Temperature Electrical Readout of Spin Defects in van der Waals Materials
• Spin-State Selective Excitation in Spin Defects of Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• A charge transfer mechanism for optically addressable solid-state spin pairs
• Group theoretical and ab-initio description of color center candidates in fluorographene
• Robust external spin hyperpolarization of quadrupolar nuclei enabled by strain
• Quantum Hall Transport Measurements of Lateral p-n Junctions Formed via Precise Spatial Photodoping of Graphene/hBN Heterostructures
• Systematic investigation of dynamic nuclear polarization with boron vacancy in hexagonal boron nitride
• Nuclear Spin-Mediated Relaxation Mechanisms of the V${}_B^{-}$ Center in hBN
• Identifying optimal magnetic field configurations for decoherence mitigation of boron vacancies in hexagonal boron nitride
• Intermediate Excited State Relaxation Dynamics of Boron Vacancy Spin Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride