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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/J007951/1
Title: Quantum Information with NV Centres
Principal Investigator: Newton, Professor ME
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Physics
Organisation: University of Warwick
Scheme: Standard Research
Starts: 03 October 2011 Ends: 02 October 2014 Value (£): 106,930
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
New & Emerging Comp. Paradigms
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
The aim of QINVC is to exploit the superior quantum coherence of the spins of the negatively charged Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) colour centres in diamond, at both room and low temperature, for quantum information processing (QIP). This system is indeed among the best solid-state quantum systems in terms of coherence, ease of manipulation by ESR, and addressability down to the single spin using optical microscopy. Our project first focuses on two hybrid strategies for QIP (WP1). The first one consists in fabricating regular arrays of single NV centres, with gate operation performed using a movable NV spin placed at the apex of a cantilever, coming close enough to get entangled with a NV spin on the lattice using magnetic dipolar interaction. The fabrication method is based on pulsed ion beam implantation through a tiny hole threading the tip of an AFM cantilever, or through the voids of a mask deposited at the surface of the diamond sample. The second strategy implements a hybrid architecture for QIP based on circuit QED and ensembles of NV spins: transmon qubits are coupled to ensembles of NV spins through the resonator in which they are embedded. The NV spins will be used as a long-coherence time quantum memory for the transmon qubits which will be used to process quantum information.

QINVC will investigate in WP2 the optical properties of NV centres at low temperature. The first goal of WP2 is to transfer the optical techniques used at room temperature to control electron and nuclear spins to low-temperatures, in the purpose of applying them to hybrid quantum circuits (WP1). A second goal is to investigate the potential of NV centres ensembles to build a quantum memory for optical photons. These ambitious goals will request the optimisation of NV centre production and their spin properties in synthetic diamond (WP3) using state-of-the-art methods and beyond. This will be done in collaboration with the world industrial leader on the production of synthetic diamond Element6 Ltd. Engineered implantation of single N impurities with nanometer resolution will be performed for WP1, and suitable concentrations will be prepared for both WP1 and WP2. Sample processing will be developed for these two WPs in order to minimize the unwanted defects that cause decoherence. Innovative fabrication techniques will be also developed, such as the preferential alignment of NV centres under uniaxial stress, an appealing possibility.

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Organisation Website: http://www.warwick.ac.uk