High Q-Factor Diamond Optomechanical Resonators with Silicon Vacancy Centers at Millikelvin Temperatures.

Phonons are envisioned as coherent intermediaries between different types of quantum systems. Engineered nanoscale devices, such as optomechanical crystals (OMCs), provide a platform to utilize phonons as quantum information carriers. Here we demonstrate OMCs in diamond designed for strong for interactions between phonons and a silicon vacancy (SiV) spin. Using optical measurements at millikelvin temperatures, we measure a line width of 13 kHz (Q-factor of ∼4.4 × 105) for a 6 GHz acoustic mode, a record for diamond in the GHz frequency range and within an order of magnitude of state-of-the-art line widths for OMCs in silicon. We investigate SiV optical and spin properties in these devices and outline a path toward a coherent spin-phonon interface.

Coherent acoustic control of a single silicon vacancy spin in diamond.

Phonons are considered to be universal quantum transducers due to their ability to couple to a wide variety of quantum systems. Among these systems, solid-state point defect spins are known for being long-lived optically accessible quantum memories. Recently, it has been shown that inversion-symmetric defects in diamond, such as the negatively charged silicon vacancy center (SiV), feature spin qubits that are highly susceptible to strain. Here, we leverage this strain response to achieve coherent and low-power acoustic control of a single SiV spin, and perform acoustically driven Ramsey interferometry of a single spin. Our results demonstrate an efficient method of spin control for these systems, offering a path towards strong spin-phonon coupling and phonon-mediated hybrid quantum systems.

Electromagnetic and gravitational responses of photonic Landau levels.

Topology has recently become a focus in condensed matter physics, arising in the context of the quantum Hall effect and topological insulators. In both of these cases, the topology of the system is defined through bulk properties ('topological invariants') but detected through surface properties. Here we measure three topological invariants of a quantum Hall material-photonic Landau levels in curved space-through local electromagnetic and gravitational responses of the bulk material. Viewing the material as a many-port circulator, the Chern number (a topological invariant) manifests as spatial winding of the phase of the circulator. The accumulation of particles near points of high spatial curvature and the moment of inertia of the resultant particle density distribution quantify two additional topological invariants-the mean orbital spin and the chiral central charge. We find that these invariants converge to their global values when probed over increasing length scales (several magnetic lengths), consistent with the intuition that the bulk and edges of a system are distinguishable only for sufficiently large samples (larger than roughly one magnetic length). Our experiments are enabled by applying quantum optics tools to synthetic topological matter (here twisted optical resonators). Combined with advances in Rydberg-mediated photon collisions, our work will enable precision characterization of topological matter in photon fluids.