Work

Nuclear-spin relaxation in solid-state-defect quantum bits via electron-phonon coupling in the optically excited state

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Optically accessible solid-state-defect spins serve as a primary platform for quantum information processing, where precise control of the electron spin and ancillary nuclear spins is essential for operation. With use of the nitrogen-vacancy color center in diamond as an example, by a combined group theory and density functional theory study we demonstrate that spin-lattice relaxation of the ${}^{14}\mathrm{N}$ nuclear spin is significantly enhanced due to strong entanglement with orbital degrees of freedom in the ${|}^{3}E⟩$ optically excited state of the defect. This mechanism is common to other solid-state-defect nuclear spins with similar optically excited states. Additionally, we propose a straightforward and versatile ab initio scheme for predicting orbital-dependent spin Hamiltonians for trigonal defects exhibiting orbital degeneracy.

Source: Physical Review Applied

DOI: 10.1103/1q3f-7zvl

Authors: Gergő Thiering, Adam Gali

Institutions: HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Language: English

Topic: Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research

Subfield: Materials Chemistry

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green