Single electron-spin-resonance detection by microwave photon counting

  1. Zhiren Wang,
  2. Léo Balembois,
  3. Milos Rančić,
  4. Eric Billaud,
  5. Marianne Le Dantec,
  6. Alban Ferrier,
  7. Philippe Goldner,
  8. Sylvain Bertaina,
  9. Thierry Chanelière,
  10. Daniel Estève,
  11. Denis Vion,
  12. Patrice Bertet,
  13. and Emmanuel Flurin
Electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is the method of choice for characterizing paramagnetic impurities, with applications ranging from chemistry to quantum computing, but it
gives access only to ensemble-averaged quantities due to its limited signal-to-noise ratio. Single-electron-spin sensitivity has however been reached using spin-dependent photoluminescence, transport measurements, and scanning-probe techniques. These methods are system-specific or sensitive only in a small detection volume, so that practical single spin detection remains an open challenge. Here, we demonstrate single electron magnetic resonance by spin fluorescence detection, using a microwave photon counter at cryogenic temperatures. We detect individual paramagnetic erbium ions in a scheelite crystal coupled to a high-quality factor planar superconducting resonator to enhance their radiative decay rate, with a signal-to-noise ratio of 1.9 in one second integration time. The fluorescence signal shows anti-bunching, proving that it comes from individual emitters. Coherence times up to 3 ms are measured, limited by the spin radiative lifetime. The method has the potential to apply to arbitrary paramagnetic species with long enough non-radiative relaxation time, and allows single-spin detection in a volume as large as the resonator magnetic mode volume ( 10 um^3 in the present experiment), orders of magnitude larger than other single-spin detection techniques. As such, it may find applications in magnetic resonance and quantum computing.

Coherent storage of microwave excitations in rare-earth nuclear spins

  1. Gary Wolfowicz,
  2. Hannes Maier-Flaig,
  3. Robert Marino,
  4. Alban Ferrier,
  5. Hervé Vezin,
  6. John J.L. Morton,
  7. and Philippe Goldner
Interfacing between various elements of a computer – from memory to processors to long range communication – will be as critical for quantum computers as it is for classical
computers today. Paramagnetic rare earth doped crystals, such as Nd3+:Y2SiO5 (YSO), are excellent candidates for such a quantum interface: they are known to exhibit long optical coherence lifetimes (for communication via optical photons), possess a nuclear spin (memory) and have in addition an electron spin that can offer hybrid coupling with superconducting qubits (processing). Here we study two of these three elements, demonstrating coherent storage and retrieval between electron and 145Nd nuclear spin states in Nd3+:YSO. We find nuclear spin coherence times can reach 9 ms at ≈5 K, about two orders of magnitude longer than the electron spin coherence, while quantum state and process tomography of the storage/retrieval operation reveal an average state fidelity of 0.86. The times and fidelities are expected to further improve at lower temperatures and with more homogeneous radio-frequency excitation.