Theory of the optical spin-polarization loop of the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond
At a Glance
Section titled āAt a Glanceā| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2018-08-29 |
| Journal | Physical review. B./Physical review. B |
| Authors | GergÅ Thiering, ĆdĆ”m Gali |
| Institutions | HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences |
| Citations | 96 |
Abstract
Section titled āAbstractāThe nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is of high importance in quantum\ninformation processing applications which relies on the efficient optical\npolarization of its electron spin. However, the full optical spinpolarization\nprocess, in particular, the intersystem crossing between the shelving singlet\nstate and the ground state triplet, is not understood. Here we develop a\ndetailed theory on this process which involves strong electron-phonon couplings\nand correlation of electronic states that can be described as a combination of\npseudo and dynamic Jahn-Teller interactions together with spin-orbit\ninteraction. Our theory provides an explanation for the asymmetry between the\nobserved emission and absorption spectra of the singlet states. We apply\ndensity functional theory to calculate the intersystem crossing rates and the\noptical spectra of the singlets and we obtain good agreement with the\nexperimental data. As NV center serves as a template for other\nsolid-state-defect quantum bit systems, our theory provides a toolkit to study\nthem that might help optimize their quantum bit operation.\n