Suppression of Pulsed Dynamic Nuclear Polarization by Many-Body Spin Dynamics

We study a mechanism by which nuclear hyperpolarization due to the polarization transfer from a microwave-pulse-controlled electron spin is suppressed. From analytical and numerical calculations of the unitary dynamics of multiple nuclear spins, we uncover that, combined with the formation of the dark state within a cluster of nuclei, coherent higher-order nuclear spin dynamics impose limits on the efficiency of the polarization transfer even in the absence of mundane depolarization processes such as nuclear spin diffusion and relaxation. Furthermore, we show that the influence of the dark state can be partly mitigated by introducing a disentangling operation. Our analysis is applied to the nuclear polarizations observed in $^{13}$C nuclei coupled with a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond [Science 374, 1474 (2021) by J. Randall et al.]. Our work sheds light on collective engineering of nuclear spins as well as future designs of pulsed dynamic nuclear polarization protocols

Nitrogen isotope effects on boron vacancy quantum sensors in hexagonal boron nitride

Recently, there has been growing interest in researching the use of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) for quantum technologies. Here we investigate nitrogen isotope effects on boron vacancy (V$_\text{B}$) defects, one of the candidates for quantum sensors, in $^{15}$N isotopically enriched hBN synthesized using metathesis reaction. The Raman shifts are scaled with the reduced mass, consistent with previous work on boron isotope enrichment. We obtain nitrogen isotopic composition dependent optically detected magnetic resonance spectra of V$_\text{B}$ defects and determine the hyperfine interaction parameter of $^{15}$N spin to be -64 MHz. Our investigation provides a design policy for hBNs for quantum technologies

Demonstration of highly-sensitive wideband microwave sensing using ensemble nitrogen-vacancy centers

Microwave magnetometry is essential for the advancement of microwave technologies. We demonstrate a broadband microwave sensing protocol using the AC Zeeman effect with ensemble nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. A widefield microscope can visualize the frequency characteristics of the microwave resonator and the spatial distribution of off-resonant microwave amplitude. Furthermore, by combining this method with dynamical decoupling, we achieve the microwave amplitude sensitivity of $5.2 \, \mathrm{\mu T} / \sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$, which is 7.7 times better than $40.2 \, \mathrm{\mu T} / \sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ obtained using the protocol in previous research over a sensing volume of $2.77 \, \mathrm{\mu m} \times 2.77 \, \mathrm{\mu m} \times 30 \, \mathrm{nm}$. Our achievement is a concrete step in adapting ensemble NV centers for wideband and widefield microwave imaging.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, and supplementary material

Demonstration of geometric diabatic control of quantum states

Geometric effects can play a pivotal role in streamlining quantum manipulation. We demonstrate a geometric diabatic control, that is, perfect tunneling between spin states in a diamond by a quadratic sweep of a driving field. The field sweep speed for the perfect tunneling is determined by the geometric amplitude factor and can be tuned arbitrarily. Our results are obtained by testing a quadratic version of Berry's twisted Landau-Zener model. This geometric tuning is robust over a wide parameter range. Our work provides a basis for quantum control in various systems, including condensed matter physics, quantum computation, and nuclear magnetic resonance