Diamond Spins Shining Bright

Abstract

The spin on a silicon defect in diamond can be prepared in a coherent quantum state, a promising sign that it could encode information in a quantum internet. The quantum internet of the future could take many forms, but its core components will be quantum bits (qubits) that can store information and qubits that can carry information [1, 2]. Atom-sized defects in diamond called silicon vacancy centers are promising candidates as the storage component: they possess a single spin whose quantum state (such as a superposition between " up " and " down ") could encode information. This stored informa-tion can also be precisely imprinted on the light the de-fects emit when excited optically. Independent research groups led by Fedor Jelezko at Ulm University in Ger-many [3] and by Mete Atatüre at Cambridge University in the UK [4] have now measured the coherence time T