Transform-limited photons from a coherent tin-vacancy spin in diamond

Solid-state quantum emitters that couple coherent optical transitions to long-lived spin qubits are essential for quantum networks. Here we report on the spin and optical properties of individual tin-vacancy (SnV) centers in diamond nanostructures. Through cryogenic magneto-optical and spin spectroscopy, we verify the inversion-symmetric electronic structure of the SnV, identify spin-conserving and spin-flipping transitions, characterize transition linewidths, measure electron spin lifetimes and evaluate the spin dephasing time. We find that the optical transitions are consistent with the radiative lifetime limit even in nanofabricated structures. The spin lifetime is phononlimited with an exponential temperature scaling leading to $T_1$ $>$ 10 ms, and the coherence time, $T_2$ reaches the nuclear spin-bath limit upon cooling to 2.9 K. These spin properties exceed those of other inversion-symmetric color centers for which similar values require millikelvin temperatures. With a combination of coherent optical transitions and long spin coherence without dilution refrigeration, the SnV is a promising candidate for feasable and scalable quantum networking applications

Natural vocalizations in the mammalian inferior colliculus are broadly encoded by a small number of independent multi-unit clusters

How complex natural sounds are represented by the main converging center of the auditory midbrain, the central inferior colliculus, is an open question. We applied neural discrimination to determine the variation of detailed encoding of individual vocalizations across the best frequency gradient of the central inferior colliculus. The analysis was based on collective responses from several neurons. These multi-unit spike trains were recorded from guinea pigs exposed to a spectrotemporally rich set of eleven species-specific vocalizations. Spike trains of disparate units from the same recording were combined in order to investigate whether groups of multi-unit clusters represent the whole set of vocalizations more reliably than only one unit, and whether temporal response correlations between them facilitate an unambiguous neural representation of the vocalizations. We found a spatial distribution of the capability to accurately encode groups of vocalizations across the best frequency gradient. Different vocalizations are optimally discriminated at different locations of the best frequency gradient. Furthermore, groups of a few multi-unit clusters yield improved discrimination over only one multi-unit cluster between all tested vocalizations. However, temporal response correlations between units do not yield better discrimination. Our study is based on a large set of units of simultaneously recorded responses from several guinea pigs and electrode insertion positions. Our findings suggest abroadly distributed code for behaviorally relevant vocalizations in the mammalian inferior colliculus.Responses from a few non-interacting units are sufficient to faithfully represent the whole set of studied vocalizations with diverse spectrotemporal properties

Neural and response correlations to natural complex sounds in the auditory midbrain

How natural communication sounds are spatially represented across the inferior colliculus, the main center of convergence for auditory information in the midbrain, is not known. The neural representation of the acoustic stimuli results from the interplay of locally differing input and the organization of spectral and temporal neural preferences that change gradually across the nucleus. This raises the question how similar the neural representation of the communication sounds is across these gradients of neural preferences, and whether it also changes gradually. Analyzed neural recordings were multi-unit cluster spike trains from guinea pigs presented with a spectrotemporally rich set of eleven species-specific communication sounds. Using cross-correlation, we analyzed the response similarity of spiking activity across a broad frequency range for neurons of similar and different frequency tuning. Furthermore, we separated the contribution of the stimulus to the correlations to investigate whether similarity is only attributable to the stimulus, or, whether interactions exist between the multi-unit clusters that lead to neural correlations and whether these follow the same representation as the response correlations. We found that similarity of responses is dependent on the neurons' spatial distance for similarly and differently frequency-tuned neurons, and that similarity decreases gradually with spatial distance. Significant neural correlations exist, and contribute to the total response similarity. Our findings suggest that for multi-unit clusters in the mammalian inferior colliculus, the gradual response similarity with spatial distance to natural complex sounds is shaped by neural interactions and the gradual organization of neural preferences

All-Optical Quantum Sensing of Rotational Brownian Motion of Magnetic Molecules

Sensing the local environment through the motional response of small molecules lays the foundation of many fundamental technologies. The information on local viscosity, for example, is contained in the random rotational Brownian motions of molecules. However, detection of the motions is challenging for molecules with sub-nanometer scale or high motional rates. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel method of detecting fast rotational Brownian motions of small magnetic molecules. With electronic spins as sensors, we are able to detect changes in motional rates, which yield different noise spectra and therefore different relaxation signals of the sensors. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, we experimentally implemented this method to detect the motions of gadolinium (Gd) complex molecules with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamonds. With all-optical measurements of the NV centers' longitudinal relaxation, we distinguished binary solutions with varying viscosities. Our method paves a new way for detecting fast motions of sub-nanometer sized magnetic molecules with better spatial resolution than conventional optical methods. It also provides a new tool in designing better contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging.United States. Army Research Office (Grant No. W911NF-15-1-0548)United States. Army Research Office (Grant No. W911NF-11-1-0400