All-optical control of long-lived nuclear spins in rare-earth doped nanoparticles

D. Serrano,J. Karlsson,A. Fossati,A. Ferrier,P. Goldner

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04509-w

Abstract

Nanoscale systems that coherently couple to light and possess spins offer key capabilities for quantum technologies. However, an outstanding challenge is to preserve properties, and especially optical and spin coherence lifetimes, at the nanoscale. Here, we report optically controlled nuclear spins with long coherence lifetimes (T2) in rare-earth-doped nanoparticles. We detect spins echoes and measure a spin coherence lifetime of 2.9 ± 0.3 ms at 5 K under an external magnetic field of 9 mT, a T2 value comparable to those obtained in bulk rare-earth crystals. Moreover, we achieve spin T2 extension using all-optical spin dynamical decoupling and observe high fidelity between excitation and echo phases. Rare-earth-doped nanoparticles are thus the only nano-material in which optically controlled spins with millisecond coherence lifetimes have been reported. These results open the way to providing quantum light-atom-spin interfaces with long storage time within hybrid architectures.

Highlights

Nanoscale systems that coherently couple to light and possess spins offer key capabilities for quantum technologies
We demonstrate nuclear spin coherence lifetimes from 1.3 ± 0.2 ms up to 8.1 ± 0.6 ms in Eu3+-doped Y2O3 nanoparticles using a fully-optical protocol, which includes spin echo and spin a opt = 516.098 THz
Experiments were carried out on 0.5 % Eu3+:Y2O3 nanoparticles of 400 ± 80 nm composed of 130 ± 10 nm crystallites obtained by homogeneous precipitation and high temperature annealing[27]

Summary

Introduction

Nanoscale systems that coherently couple to light and possess spins offer key capabilities for quantum technologies. Spin coherent states were subsequently created and rephased following an alloptical spin-echo sequence[29,30], using two-color pulses at frequencies ω1 and ω2 (Fig. 1c).

Results

Conclusion