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Optomechanical interface between telecom photons and spin quantum memory

Nature Physics volume 17, pages 1420–1425 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Quantum networks enable a broad range of practical and fundamental applications spanning from distributed quantum computing to sensing and metrology. A cornerstone of such networks is an interface between telecom photons and quantum memories, which has proven challenging for the case of spin-mechanical memories. Here we demonstrate a novel approach based on cavity optomechanics that utilizes the susceptibility of spin qubits to strain. We use it to control electronic spins of nitrogen vacancy centres in diamond with photons in the 1,550 nm telecommunication wavelength band. This method does not involve qubit optical transitions and is insensitive to spectral diffusion. Furthermore, our approach can be applied to solid-state qubits in a wide variety of materials, expanding the toolbox for quantum information processing.

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Fig. 1: The device and its operating principle.
Fig. 2: Optomechanical characterization of the microdisk resonator.
Fig. 3: NV centres in diamond and spin driving sequence.
Fig. 4: Optomechanical control of NV centres.
Fig. 5: Roadmap for realizing a single-photon spin-optomechanical interface.

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Data availability

Source data are provided with this paper. All other data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Alberta Innovates Strategic Research Project (G2018000888), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CGI Project 36130), the National Research Council Nanotechnology Research Centre, the NSERC Discovery Grant (RGPIN/04535-2016), Strategic Partnership Grant (STPGP/521536-2018, STPGP/493807-2016), Accelerator, CREATE and RTI programmes. We thank H. Jayakumar, J. P. Hadden, T. Masuda and B. Khanaliloo for contributions to the initial setup of the experimental apparatus.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Prasoon K. Shandilya, David P. Lake.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Prasoon K. Shandilya, David P. Lake, Matthew J. Mitchell, Denis D. Sukachev & Paul E. Barclay

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Contributions

P.K.S., D.P.L. and D.D.S. set up and optimized the experiment. P.K.S. and D.P.L. measured the experimental data. P.K.S. and D.D.S. analysed the data and independently simulated the results in discussion with P.E.B. P.K.S., D.P.L. and M.J.M. prepared the sample for the experiment. P.E.B. was responsible for experimental infrastructure. P.K.S., D.D.S. and P.E.B. wrote the manuscript with input from and discussion with the co-authors. P.E.B. supervised the overall project and its direction. All the authors critically read the manuscript and approved it.

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Correspondence to Paul E. Barclay.

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Peer review information Nature Physics thanks Lilian Childress and other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Experimental setup.

a) Image of the inside of the sample chamber. b) Widefield optical image of fiber taper coupled microdisk. c) Schematic of the basic setup.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary information.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 4

All the final experimental data plotted in Fig. 4.

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Shandilya, P.K., Lake, D.P., Mitchell, M.J. et al. Optomechanical interface between telecom photons and spin quantum memory. Nat. Phys. 17, 1420–1425 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01364-3

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