Transform-Limited Photons From a Coherent Tin-Vacancy Spin in Diamond

Abstract

Solid-state quantum emitters that couple coherent optical transitions to long-lived spin states are essential for quantum networks. Here we report on the spin and optical properties of single tin-vacancy (SnV) centers in diamond nanostructures. Through magneto-optical spectroscopy at 4 K, we verify the inversion-symmetric electronic structure of the SnV, identify spin-conserving and spin-flipping transitions, characterize transition linewidths, and measure electron spin lifetimes. We find that the optical transitions are consistent with the radiative lifetime limit and that the spin lifetimes are longer than for other inversion-symmetric color centers under similar conditions. These properties indicate that the SnV is a promising candidate for quantum optics and quantum networking applications.A central goal of quantum information processing is the development of quantum networks consisting of stationary, long-lived matter qubits coupled to flying photonic qubits [1,2], with applications in quantum computing, provably secure cryptography, and quantumenhanced metrology [3]. Among matter qubits, quantum emitters in wide-bandgap semiconductors [4,5] have emerged as leading systems as their coherent, spinselective optical transitions act as an interface between quantum information stored in their spin degrees of freedom and emitted photons. While most work has so far focused on the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond [6-8], its relatively poor optical properties, including a low percentage of emission into the coherent zero-phonon-line (ZPL) [9] and large spectral diffusion when located near surfaces [10,11], have fueled the investigation of alternative emitters. These include the group-IV color centers in diamond [12], comprising the silicon-vacancy (SiV) [13][14][15][16], germanium-vacancy (GeV) [17,18], and the recently observed lead-vacancy (PbV) [19] centers. These centers have a large fraction of emission into the ZPL and a crystallographic inversion symmetry that limits spectral diffusion and inhomogeneous broadening [20,21]. Unlike the NV center, however, the electronic spin coherence of SiV and GeV centers is limited by phonon scattering to an upperlying ground-state orbital [22,23], requiring operation at dilution-refrigerator temperatures (∼ 100 mK) [24,25], or controllably induced strain [26] to achieve long coherence times.The tin-vacancy (SnV) center in diamond [27, 28] is a group-IV color center that promises favorable optical properties and long spin coherence time at readily achievable temperatures (liquid helium, ∼ 4 K). DFT calculations predict that the SnV has the same symmetry as the SiV and GeV[9], while experimental measurement of a large ground-state orbital splitting indicates that single-phonon scattering, the dominant spin dephasing mechanism of SiV and GeV centers at liquid helium temperatures, should be suppressed significantly [27]. In this work, we report spectroscopic measurements that are consistent with the conjectured electronic structure of the SnV, demonstrate that its optical...

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