Temperature-dependent phonon-induced relaxation of the nitrogen-vacancy spin triplet in diamond

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Authors

M. C. Cambria, A. Norambuena, H. T. Dinani, G. Thiering, A. Gardill, I. Kemeny, Y. Li, V. Lordi, A. Gali, J. R. Maze, S. Kolkowitz

Abstract

Phonon-induced relaxation within the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center's electronic ground-state spin triplet limits its coherence times, and thereby impacts its performance in quantum applications. We report measurements of the relaxation rates on the NV center's transitions as a function of temperature from 9 to 474 K in high-purity samples. Informed by ab initio calculations, we demonstrate that NV spin-phonon relaxation can be completely explained by the effect of second-order interactions with two distinct groups of quasilocalized phonons. Using a novel analytical model based on this understanding, we determine that the quasilocalized phonon groups are centered at 68.2(17) and 167(12) meV.

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