Strain Coupling of a Mechanical Resonator to a Single Quantum Emitter in Diamond

Abstract

The recent maturation of hybrid quantum devices has led to significant enhancements in the functionality of a wide variety of quantum systems. In particular, harnessing mechanical resonators for manipulation and control has expanded the use of two-level systems in quantum-information science and quantum sensing. Here, we report on a monolithic hybrid quantum device in which strain fields associated with resonant vibrations of a diamond cantilever dynamically control the optical transitions of a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect center in diamond. We quantitatively characterize the strain coupling to the orbital states of the NV center and, with mechanical driving, we observe NV-strain couplings exceeding 10 GHz. Furthermore, we use this strain-mediated coupling to match the frequency and polarization dependence of the zero-phonon lines of two spatially separated and initially distinguishable NV centers. The experiments demonstrated here mark an important step toward engineering a quantum device capable of realizing and probing the dynamics of nonclassical states of mechanical resonators, spin systems, and photons.