Single-spin holonomic quantum gates with coherent optical control in diamond*

Quantum state transfer and qubit operations are routinely performed using dynamic effects prone to systematic errors. With the growing interest in fault-tolerant quantum computing, researchers have turned to purely geometric phases (and their non-Abelian generalizations, holonomic gates) as a promising paradigm for robust quantum operations. However, the intrinsically slower operation of adiabatic holonomic gates is vulnerable to decoherence, which reduces fidelities. We present a recent implementation of nonadiabatic holonomic quantum control in the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, which surpasses the speeds of adiabatic control without sacrificing its geometric character [1]. In this approach, arbitrary single-qubit rotations are performed in a single operation by detuning the optical fields that drive lambda system transitions. Furthermore, we explore the enhanced robustness of detuned gates to intermediate-state decoherence and present insights for optimizing fast holonomic control in dissipative quantum systems. The NV center’s rich energy level structure and spin properties enable a variety of advanced optical control techniques [2, 3] that can be translated to other promising quantum information platforms.

[1] B. B. Zhou, P. C. Jerger, V. O. Shkolnikov, F. J. Heremans, G. Burkard, & D. D. Awschalom, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 140503 (2017).
[2] C. G. Yale et al., Nat. Photonics 10, 184-189 (2016).
[3] B. B. Zhou et al., Nat. Phys. 13, 330-334 (2017).

This work was performed in collaboration with B. B. Zhou, V. O. Shkolnikov, F. J. Heremans, G. Burkard, and D. D. Awschalom.