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Active hyperpolarization of the nuclear spin lattice - Application to hexagonal boron nitride color centers

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2023-06-16
JournalPhysical review. B./Physical review. B
AuthorsF. T. Tabesh, M. Fani, Julen S. Pedernales, Martin B. Plenio, Mehdi Abdi
InstitutionsUniversitƤt Ulm, Isfahan University of Technology
Citations11

The hyperpolarization of nuclear spin ensembles through their interaction with optically active color centers has emerged as a promising technique with applications ranging from sensing and imaging to quantum computation. Here, we investigate the efficiency of this approach for the hyperpolarization of the nuclear-spin bath in a monolayer of hexagonal boron nitride via the optically active boron vacancy centers (${\mathrm{V}}{\mathrm{B}}$). To that end we design a polarization sequence based on the suitable combination of optical polarization and microwave driving of the ${\mathrm{V}}{\mathrm{B}}$, which we optimize numerically. To extend our study to realistic systems with a large number of interacting spins, we employ an approximate method based on the Holstein-Primakoff transformation, whose validity we benchmark against exact numerics for small system sizes. Our results suggest that a high-degree of polarization in the boron and nitrogen nuclear-spin lattices is achievable also at room temperature. Our work provides the first step toward the realization of a two-dimensional quantum simulator based on natural nuclear spins and it can prove useful for extending the coherence time of the ${\mathrm{V}}_{\mathrm{B}}$ centers.

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