Coherent control of a strongly driven silicon vacancy optical transition in diamond

• Main Authors: Zhou, Yu, Rasmita, Abdullah, Li, Ke, Xiong, Qihua, Aharonovich, Igor, Gao, Wei-bo
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Diamond; Silicon
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/87079; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/44276
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The ability to prepare, optically read out and coherently control single quantum states is a key requirement for quantum information processing. Optically active solid-state emitters have emerged as promising candidates with their prospects for on-chip integration as quantum nodes and sources of coherent photons connecting these nodes. Under a strongly driving resonant laser field, such quantum emitters can exhibit quantum behaviour such as Autler–Townes splitting and the Mollow triplet spectrum. Here we demonstrate coherent control of a strongly driven optical transition in silicon vacancy centre in diamond. Rapid optical detection of photons enabled the observation of time-resolved coherent Rabi oscillations and the Mollow triplet spectrum. Detection with a probing transition further confirmed Autler–Townes splitting generated by a strong laser field. The coherence time of the emitted photons is comparable to its lifetime and robust under a very strong driving field, which is promising for the generation of indistinguishable photons.