A single NV defect coupled to a nanomechanical oscillator

Olivier Arcizet (1) , Vincent Jacques (2) , Alessandro Siria (3) , Philippe Poncharal (3) , Pascal Vincent (3) , Signe Seidelin (1)

1 NEEL - NOF - Nano-Optique et Forces
2 LPQM - Laboratoire de Photonique Quantique et Moléculaire
3 LPMCN - Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée et Nanostructures

A single Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) center hosted in a diamond nanocrystal is positioned at the extremity of a SiC nanowire. This novel hybrid system couples the degrees of freedom of two radically different systems, i.e. a nanomechanical oscillator and a single quantum object. The dynamics of the nano-resonator is probed through time resolved nanocrystal fluorescence and photon correlation measurements, conveying the influence of a mechanical degree of freedom given to a non-classical photon emitter. Moreover, by immersing the system in a strong magnetic field gradient, we induce a magnetic coupling between the nanomechanical oscillator and the NV electronic spin, providing nanomotion readout through a single electronic spin. Spin-dependent forces inherent to this coupling scheme are essential in a variety of active cooling and entanglement protocols used in atomic physics, and should now be within the reach of nanomechanical hybrid systems.

Mots clés: Hybrid systems; NV centers; nano-mechanics; quantum opto-mechanics; quantum optics; magnetic coupling; fluorescence measurements.; fluorescence measurements

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]

Olivier Arcizet, Vincent Jacques, Alessandro Siria, Philippe Poncharal, Pascal Vincent, et al.. A single NV defect coupled to a nanomechanical oscillator. Nature Physics, 2011, 7, pp.879. ⟨10.1038/NPHYS2070⟩. ⟨hal-00648481⟩