Phonons are envisioned as coherent intermediaries between different types of quantum systems. Engineered nanoscale devices, such as optomechanical crystals (OMCs), provide a platform to utilize phonons as quantum information carriers. Here we demonstrate OMCs in diamond designed for strong for interactions between phonons and a silicon vacancy (SiV) spin. Using optical measurements at millikelvin temperatures, we measure a line width of 13 kHz (Q-factor of ∼4.4 × 10⁵) for a 6 GHz acoustic mode, a record for diamond in the GHz frequency range and within an order of magnitude of state-of-the-art line widths for OMCs in silicon. We investigate SiV optical and spin properties in these devices and outline a path toward a coherent spin-phonon interface.

Efficient generation, guiding, and detection of phonons, or mechanical vibrations, are of interest in various fields, including radio-frequency communication, sensing, and quantum information. Diamond is a useful platform for phononics because of the presence of strain-sensitive spin qubits, and its high Young's modulus, which allows for low-loss gigahertz devices. We demonstrate a diamond phononic waveguide platform for generating, guiding, and detecting gigahertz-frequency surface acoustic wave (SAW) phonons. We generate SAWs using interdigital transducers integrated on AlN/diamond and observe SAW transmission at 4-5 GHz through both ridge and suspended waveguides, with wavelength-scale cross sections (approximately 1 m2) to maximize spin-phonon interaction. This work is a crucial step for developing acoustic components for quantum phononic circuits with strain-sensitive color centers in diamond.

The ability to control phonons in solids is key in many fields of quantum science, ranging from quantum information processing to sensing. Phonons often act as a source of noise and decoherence when solid-state quantum systems interact with the phonon bath of their host matrix. In this study, we demonstrate the ability to control the phononic local density of states of the host matrix using phononic crystals and measure its positive impact on single quantum systems. We design and fabricate diamond phononic crystals with features down to around 20 nm, resulting in a high-frequency complete phononic bandgap from 50 to 70 GHz. The engineered local density of states is probed using single silicon-vacancy colour centres embedded in the phononic crystals. We observe an 18-fold reduction in the phonon-induced orbital relaxation rate of the emitters compared to bulk, thereby demonstrating that the phononic crystal suppresses spontaneous single-phonon processes. Furthermore, we show that our approach can efficiently suppress single-phonon–emitter interactions up to 20 K, allowing the investigation of multi-phonon processes in the emitters. Our results represent an important step towards the realization of efficient phonon–emitter interfaces that can be used for quantum acoustodynamics and quantum phononic networks.

We demonstrate optical coupling between a single tin-vacancy (SnV) center in diamond and a free-standing photonic crystal nanobeam cavity. The cavities are fabricated using quasi-isotropic etching and feature experimentally measured quality factors as high as ∼11 000. We investigate the dependence of a single SnV center's emission by controlling the cavity wavelength using a laser-induced gas desorption technique. Under resonance conditions, we observe an intensity enhancement of the SnV emission by a factor of 12 and a 16-fold reduction of the SnV lifetime. Based on the large enhancement of the SnV emission rate inside the cavity, we estimate the Purcell factor for the SnV zero-phonon line to be 37 and the coupling efficiency of the SnV center to the cavity, the β factor, to be 95%. Our work paves the way for the realization of quantum photonic devices and systems based on efficient photonic interfaces using the SnV color center in diamond.