NVCenter Technology

The team works in the field of nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond. Diamonds, which are very pure forms of carbon, may contain small impurities at the atomic level: occasionally two carbon atoms may be missing at two adjacent points in the lattice, one of these holes may be occupied by a nitrogen atom, and another hole provides a vacant electron whose change of spin state (qubit) can be controlled by the emission or absorption of light. Furthermore, in the vicinity of the NV-center, the 13C nuclear spins can be used as memory qubits, coupled to the electron spin of the NV-center through hyperfine interaction. One characteristic that makes them interesting for certain applications is that the coherence time of these nuclear spins is long, over one second. 

These structures can be used to determine electric and magnetic fields, chemical reactions, or pressure, allowing detectors to be built with unprecedented resolution. Another more emerging application has to do with communications. The small magnetic moment (spin) of these structures allows bits of quantum information (qubits) to be encoded, and their ability to emit single quanta of light (single photons) provides the means to transfer qubit information between spin and emitted light. The propagation of light (which needs to be adapted to the appropriate wavelength), via fibre or open space, could carry information to another distant place about the quantum state of an impurity and imprint it on another impurity. 

The use of diamond is very interesting considering the type of industrial applications of the initiative. As it is a solid-state material, it allows the manufacture of more compact and robust devices -compared to those based on gases, cooled atoms, or trapped ions. Also, unlike other quantum sensors that need to work in cryogenic environments, the diamond structure offers NV hubs the right environment to be used in a wide range of temperatures, from cryogenics to hundreds of degrees Celsius.