Coupling nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds to optical cavities is a promising way to enhance the efficiency of diamond-based quantum networks. An essential aspect of the full toolbox required for the operation of these networks is the ability to achieve the microwave control of the electron spin associated with this defect within the cavity framework. Here, we report on the fabrication of an integrated platform for the microwave control of an NV center electron spin in an open, tunable Fabry–Pérot microcavity. A critical aspect of the measurements of the cavity’s finesse reveals that the presented fabrication process does not compromise its optical properties. We provide a method to incorporate a thin diamond slab into the cavity architecture and demonstrate the control of the NV center spin. These results show the promise of this design for future cavity-enhanced NV center spin-photon entanglement experiments.
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A quantumnetwork would allow the distribution of a quantum state over many spatially separated quantum nodes which individually possess the ability to generate, process and store quantum information. Connecting these nodes through quantum communication channels would enable sending quantum information over arbitrarily long distances, secret key distribution with guaranteed secure communication and distributed quantum computing. An appealing platform for implementation of quantum networks is the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. An NV center is an optically active defect in diamond created by the substitution of two adjacent carbon atoms in the diamond crystal matrix by a nitrogen atom and a neighboring vacancy. The NV center fits remarkably well in the described quantum network framework. Its electronic spin can be optically initialized, read out in a single shot, coherently manipulated and coupled to the nearby carbon-13 nuclear spins. These properties represent necessary ingredients of a multi-qubit quantum node. The possibility of the entanglement between the state of the NV center spin and a photon establishes a photonic quantum link which can enable the entanglement of the quantum nodes, forming a quantum network. First building blocks of the proposed quantum networks based on NV centers were demonstrated by performing entanglement between two distant NV centers separated by more than a kilometer. However, the current success rate of the entangling protocols is greatly reduced due to the low emission probability of the NV center photons into the resonant zero phonon line (ZPL) and the inefficient photon extraction from the diamond. This is the central problem which prevents promoting our experiments beyond proof-of-principle demonstration towards practical implementation of the proposed quantumnetworks. The goal of this thesis is tackling these issues by coupling NV centers to optical cavities which would greatly increase the rate of generation and collection of the ZPL photons through themechanism of Purcell enhancement. The design and the fabrication of the components constituting a diamond-basedFabry-Perot microcavity, as used in this thesis, are described in Chapter 4. For large enhancement of the NV center resonant emission, a low cavity mode volume is necessary. This is achieved by inserting a micrometers thin diamond slab into the cavity architecture; we present the fabrication details of such samples. Chapter 5 describes the fabrication of an integrated platform for microwave signal delivery to the NV centers within a diamond membrane in the cavity architecture. Microwave striplines and arrays of unique markers are embedded in the mirror onto which the diamond is bonded. We investigate the mirror optical properties post fabrication and find that the fabrication method preserves the mirror optical performance. We describe the diamond bonding method and demonstrate addressing of the NV center spin. In Chapter 6 we probe the properties of the cavity with the embedded diamond membrane through measurements of the cavity finesse. We investigate the cavity finesse dependence on length, mode structure and temperature. We further explore the operation at cryogenic temperatures by probing the effect of cryostation vibration on the cavity linewidth. Finally, in Chapter 7 we discuss ways of improving the existing experimental capabilities, outline the first steps for demonstrating enhancement of the NV center resonant emission and suggest future experiments that can be performed with this system. We conclude that coupling of the NV centers to the cavities developed in this research could lead to an increase of remote entanglement success rates by more than three orders of magnitude. ... Read more

We report on the fabrication and characterization of a Fabry-Perot microcavity enclosing a thin diamond membrane at cryogenic temperatures. The cavity is designed to enhance resonant emission of single nitrogen-vacancy centers by allowing spectral and spatial tuning while preserving the optical properties observed in bulk diamond. We demonstrate cavity finesse at cryogenic temperatures within the range of F ¼ 4000–12 000 and find a sub-nanometer cavity stability. Modeling shows that coupling nitrogen-vacancy centers to these cavities could lead to an increase in remote entanglement success rates by three orders of magnitude. ... Read more