ARTICLE

Received 4 Apr 2014 | Accepted 17 Jun 2014 | Published 18 Jul 2014 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5429 OPEN

Dynamic strain-mediated coupling of a single

diamond spin to a mechanical resonator
Preeti Ovartchaiyapong1,*, Kenneth W. Lee1,*, Bryan A. Myers1 & Ania C. Bleszynski Jayich1

The development of hybrid quantum systems is central to the advancement of emerging

quantum technologies, including quantum information science and quantum-assisted sen-
sing. The recent demonstration of high-quality single-crystal diamond resonators has led to
significant interest in a hybrid system consisting of nitrogen–vacancy centre spins that
interact with the resonant phonon modes of a macroscopic mechanical resonator through
crystal strain. However, the nitrogen–vacancy spin–strain interaction has not been well
characterized. Here, we demonstrate dynamic, strain-mediated coupling of the mechanical
motion of a diamond cantilever to the spin of an embedded nitrogen–vacancy centre. Via
quantum control of the spin, we quantitatively characterize the axial and transverse strain
sensitivities of the nitrogen–vacancy ground-state spin. The nitrogen–vacancy centre is an
atomic scale sensor and we demonstrate spin-based strain imaging with a strain sensitivity of
3  10  6 strain Hz  1/2. Finally, we show how this spin-resonator system could enable
coherent spin–phonon interactions in the quantum regime.

1 Department of Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, Broida Hall, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA. * These authors contributed equally to this

work. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to A.J. (email: ania@[Link]).

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N
itrogen–vacancy (NV) centres in diamond are among the where D0 is the crystal-field splitting (D0 ¼ 2.87 GHz), gNV is the
most promising implementations of quantum bits for gyromagnetic ratio (gNV ¼ 2.8 MHz G  1), d8 and d> are the
quantum information processing1 and nanoscale field strain susceptibility parameters parallel and perpendicular to the
sensors . Because of their excellent coherence properties3 and
2 NV symmetry axis (whose values are determined in this work),
their ability to coherently couple to various external fields, NV S± are the spin-1 raising and lowering operators, Ek ¼ Ez ,
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
centres are ideal candidates for integration into a hybrid quantum E? ¼ E2x þ E2y , tanðfs Þ ¼ Ey =Ex and fEi gi¼x;y;z are the diagonal
system, which combines the merits of two or more physical
systems to mitigate their individual weaknesses. To date, components of the strain tensor defined in the NV’s basis (note
experimental efforts have focused on integrating the NV centre we have neglected shear). We will henceforth refer to d8 and d>
into hybrid systems consisting of photons4–6, nuclear spins7 and as the axial and transverse strain susceptibility parameters. A
magnetically coupled mechanical resonators8,9. uniaxial strain along the NV symmetry axis, Ek ; results in a shift
Recent demonstrations of high-quality (Q) factor single-crystal of the crystal-field splitting, whereas a strain transverse to the
diamond (SCD) mechanical resonators10,11 have generated interest in symmetry axis, E? ; results in mixing between the jms ¼  1i Sz
the development of a monolithic structure consisting of such a eigenstates. Because strain and stress are tensors, the uniaxial
resonator that is strain coupled to the electronic spin of an embedded stress due to the bending of the cantilever will generate strain
NV centre12,13. With the NV’s long quantum coherence time and along all three principal directions because of the Poisson effect25.
diamond’s low-mechanical losses, this system provides a unique This effect cannot be neglected, as shown later.
environment to engineer spin–spin entanglement or spin In this experiment, an NV interacts with the fundamental
squeezing12. Moreover, a coherent spin–phonon interaction may be mechanical mode of the cantilever via strain (Fig. 1a). For small
used to generate non-classical states of the resonator, such as displacements of the cantilever, the strain felt by the NV centre is
Schrödinger cat states13–16. An inherent advantage of a strain- linear in cantilever position, and the total strain can be written as
coupled spin-resonator system is the intrinsic nature of the coupling; E ¼ E0 Xx0d , where Xd is the amplitude of driven motion, x0 is the
no additional components are required to tune the coupling strength, amplitude of zero point motion and E0 is the strain induced by the
such as an atomic force microscope tip or cavity, which may zero point motion12. If the NV is in the presence of a static
introduce fluctuating fields that decohere the NV spin. In addition, in magnetic field aligned closely to its symmetry axis, equation (1)
contrast with other hybrid mechanical systems, this NV-resonator can be approximately diagonalized with eigenstates fj0i; j  ig,
system requires no functionalization of the resonator with, for and the energies can be expressed as a function of the normalized
example, a mirror or electrode, which could adversely affect the Q. beam displacement, X ¼ Xx0d
However, to engineer such a system, we require a quantitative qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
understanding of how strain couples to the ground-state spin E0 ’ 0; E  ðXÞ ’ D0 þ gk X  ðgNV Bz Þ2 þ ðg? XÞ2 ð2Þ
levels of the NV centre. Despite the NV’s well-understood
sensitivity to magnetic2 and electric17,18 fields and where gk ¼ dk E0k and g? ¼ d? E0? are the axial and transverse
temperature19,20, the NV ground-state strain sensitivity has not strain couplings to the zero point motion of the resonator, and
been fully characterized, and there exist competing theoretical j  i are defined as (Supplementary Note 1),
models of the strain interaction18,21–23. a a
In this letter, we use high-Q SCD cantilevers to probe the j0i ¼ j0i; j  i ¼ cos j1i  e  ifs sin j  1i ð3Þ
2 2
interaction between a single NV spin and crystal strain. The
magnitude of the strain is highly controlled, and is set by the where a/2 is the Stückelberg angle and tanðaÞ ¼ d? E? =gNV Bz . We
cantilever’s mode shape and amplitude of motion, the depth and note that by tuning Bz we may selectively characterize axial and
lateral location of the NV in the cantilever and the orientation of transverse strain, as evidenced in equation (2).
the NV with respect to the cantilever axis. The strain induced by The experiment consists of a single spin embedded in a SCD
an oscillating cantilever modulates the energy of the ground-state cantilever (Fig. 1b). The cantilevers used here (Fig. 1c) were
spin levels, which is detected via coherent quantum control of the fabricated using the technique described in ref. 10, and are 60 mm
spin24. Combined with the known strain profile of a cantilever long, 15 mm wide and B1 mm thick. They have fundamental
under pure bending and the four possible NV orientations in the frequencies om/2p near 1 MHz and quality factors exceeding
diamond crystal structure, our measurements allow us to extract 3.0  105, which were measured using optical interferometry10.
the axial and transverse strain susceptibilities. Thus, the NV is a All measurements were performed at room temperature and at
calibrated strain sensor, with which we image the strain profile of pressures of approximately 10  5 Torr. NVs were formed
the resonator. Importantly, we demonstrate NV–strain coupling approximately 50 nm below the diamond surface via 14N ion
in a geometry appropriate for realizing a hybrid quantum system, implantation and vacuum annealing (see Methods). The
and show that by scaling down the dimensions of the resonator, it orientation of the NV with respect to the cantilever
should be possible to reach the quantum regime of coupling (Supplementary Fig. 1) is identified through its Zeeman
between spins and phonons. splitting in an applied static magnetic field. We align this field
closely to the NV axis to break the degeneracy of the j  1i spin
Results levels. We encode our qubit in the j0i and j þ i spin states, and
Strain model and experimental setup. Here, we model strain by coherently manipulate the spin using near-resonant microwaves.
an effective electric field in which strain-induced displacements of We are able to distinguish the effects of Ek and E? by noting an AC
the atoms alter the electron density in the crystal, resulting in E8 modulates the qubit frequency at om, whereas an AC E?
local electric fields17,18. Therefore, the ground-state Hamiltonian modulates the qubit frequency at approximately 2om.
for an NV in the presence of magnetic and strain fields may be
described by (h ¼ 1) Axial strain detection. Figure 2a shows the measurement pro-
tocol for axial strain detection. The cantilever is resonantly driven
d? E?   ifs 2  with a piezoelectric transducer, and the phase of the drive is not
HNV ¼ ðD0 þ dk Ek ÞS2z þ gNV S  B  e S þ þ eifs S2 phase-locked to the timing of the control pulses. The NV spin is
2 initialized to the j0i state via optical pumping with a 532 nm laser.
ð1Þ Microwaves tuned to the j0i $ j þ i transition are applied to the

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NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5429 ARTICLE

⎪+〉
+ +

NV

+

⎪0〉

−ε 0 ε
– +
⎪+〉
NV
15 μm 1 μm
+
kC s–1

0 100 200
⎢0〉

Figure 1 | A hybrid NV-cantilever system. (a) Strain modulates the spin levels of an NV centre embedded in a cantilever. The strain profile was simulated
using a finite element method. (b) Schematic of experiment: a green laser is focused onto a single NV spin embedded in a cantilever via a confocal
microscope for initialization and readout. Microwaves are used for pulsed spin manipulation. (c) Confocal image of a cantilever showing the presence of
single embedded NV centres.

NV to carry out a Hahn echo pulse sequence with a total free different positions along the length of the cantilever
evolution time T ¼ 2t. During the free evolution periods, the (Supplementary Fig. 2). In Fig. 3a, we show the simulated strain
resonantly driven motion of the cantilever imprints a relative profile of a cantilever under pure bending. Figure 3b shows the
phase onto the qubit, which is then converted into a population measured strain couplings for several NVs along the cantilever for
difference and read out via the spin-dependent fluorescence. In a fixed drive. The data are in good agreement with the theoretical
the measurements of axial strain, Bz was set to 22 G to suppress strain profile, shown by the shaded region in Fig. 3b
the effects of transverse strain, as shown in equation (2). (Supplementary Note 3). Notably, this agreement provides con-
A dynamic axial strain results in a modulation of the spin vincing evidence that strain is responsible for the spin evolution.
population difference that is correlated to the motion of the From the data in Fig. 3b, we can extract d8 by combining the
cantilever. As depicted in Fig. 2b, when the total evolution time of interferometrically measured amplitude of motion, the NV’s
the spin is equal to an odd integer multiple of the cantilever period, position and orientation in the cantilever, and the expected strain
the accumulated phase is maximized, resulting in a reduced profile of the cantilever (Supplementary Note 4). By measuring
population in j0i. When the total evolution time is equal to an several NVs, we average over the variations in NV depth and local
even multiple of the cantilever period, the qubit acquires no phase, strain inhomogeneities, and we find an average value of
resulting in a revival of j0i state population. Because the cantilever’s d8 ¼ 13.4±0.8 GHz per strain, and hence calibrate our strain
motion and microwave pulse timing are not phase locked, the signal sensor. Given our current experimental parameters, we estimate
averages over a uniformly distributed initial phase of the motion, an axial strain sensitivity of approximately 3  10  6 strain
and is given by a zero order Bessel function (Supplementary Note 2). Hz  1/2 (Supplementary Note 5). For the cantilevers in this
By fitting the data in Fig. 2b (solid black line) to the experiment, an NV at the base could then detect B7 nm of
expected echo signal, we extract an axial strain coupling motion in a 1 sec measurement.
G8 ¼ g8X ¼ 2.1±0.1 MHz and a cantilever frequency
om /2p ¼ 882:0  2:0 kHz, in agreement with the driving Transverse strain detection. We next measured the transverse
frequency of the cantilever of 884.583 kHz. The strain coupling strain coupling. To do so, we measured NVs oriented perpendi-
can be tuned with cantilever drive. Figure 2c shows a Hahn echo cular to the cantilever stress, as shown in Fig. 4a. Although the
measurement of a single NV for different beam deflection stress is entirely perpendicular to NVs oriented [111] and [111]
amplitudes. In the absence of cantilever drive, the spin retains its (shown with red bonds), these NVs will experience non-negligible
coherence over a single period of the cantilever’s motion. As the axial strain in addition to transverse strain because of the Poisson
amplitude of driven motion increases, the increased strain effect25. Experimentally, the effects of axial and transverse strains
coupling results in a reduced j0i state population. For sufficiently are identified by beatnotes present in the spin evolution. To
high couplings, Bessel fringe oscillations are observed, indicating enhance our sensitivity to these beatnotes, we applied an XY-4
that the spin has precessed more than once around the equator of control sequence26 (Fig. 4b) to the NV and decreased Bz to 16 G.
the Bloch sphere. In Fig. 2d, we plot G8 for four different drive This sequence increases our sensitivity by extending the
amplitudes and confirm that the coupling is linear with beam coherence time, correcting for first-order timing errors, and
displacement. increasing the interrogation time. The data and fit to the expected
XY-4 signal (Supplementary Note 6) in Fig. 4c give
Single spin strain imaging. With its atom-sized spatial extent, G> ¼ 6.7±0.4 MHz, G8 ¼ (2.7±0.5)  102 kHz and a cantilever
the NV is a novel, nanoscale strain sensor. We demonstrate NV- frequency om =2p ¼ 899  8 kHz, in agreement with the
based strain imaging by measuring G8 for several NVs located at cantilever drive frequency of 884.890 kHz. Transforming the

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b
1.0
a

Population in |0〉
0.8

Cantilever 0.6
motion
  0.4
/  /
Initialization 2 2 Readout
0.2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Total evolution time T (μs)
c d
1.0 3.0
2.5
Population in |0〉

0.8
2.0

G|| (MHz)
0.6 1.5
1.0
0.4
Xd = 300 nm 0.5
Xd = 150 nm
0.2 0
No Drive

0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0 200 400 600 800 1,000
Total evolution time T (μs) Beam deflection (nm)

Figure 2 | Axial strain detection with a single NV. (a) AC axial strain is detected with a Hahn echo sequence. Transverse strain is suppressed by an
applied 22 G axial magnetic field. The p pulse allows the phases from the first (light grey) and second (dark grey) free evolution periods to add
constructively. (b) Measured Hahn echo spin population (red circles) for an NV at the base of a cantilever with om /2p ¼ 884 kHz and an oscillation
amplitude of 650 nm as a function of total evolution time T ¼ 2t. The echo signal is given by a zero-order Bessel function (fit is black solid line) because the
cantilever motion is not phase-locked to the timing of the control pulses. Error bars correspond to standard error in photon counting. (c) The amplitude of
cantilever motion impacts the spin evolution. Hahn echo spin population of an NV at the base of a om =2p ¼ 630 kHz cantilever in the absence of drive
(green triangles), with a drive corresponding to 150 nm cantilever amplitude (blue squares) and 300 nm amplitude (yellow circles). Dotted black lines are
fits to the data. (d) Plotted strain coupling G8 for an NV 11 mm from the base on the cantilever described in b as a function of beam deflection. Vertical error
bars correspond to standard error of the fit to the theoretical echo signal. Horizontal error bars correspond to the uncertainty in beam deflection from
interferometric measurements.

cantilever strain tensor into the NV’s coordinate system and Furthermore, the resonance phenomenon we utilize provides a well-
using the Poisson ratio of 0.069 for CVD diamond25 defined mode shape, whereas static bending may not isolate a single
(Supplementary Note 4), we extract d8 ¼ 13.3±1.1 GHz mode. Another study23 measured shifts of the NV ground-state
per strain and d> ¼ 21.5±1.2 GHz per strain. The extracted crystal field splitting under hydrostatic pressure, and their measured
value of d8 is in very good agreement with the extracted value of value of d8 ¼ 17.5 GHz per strain is in good agreement with our
d8 measured for the NVs experiencing predominantly axial strain result. However, no value of d> was reported. Ab initio calculations
in Fig. 3. from ref. 23 estimate a value of d8 ¼ 7.44 GHz per strain by
considering modifications of the spin–spin coupling because of
Discussion changes in the NV bond lengths. This value is of the same order of
The measured strain susceptibility parameters indicate that while magnitude as our result, indicating that this effect has a significant
the simple model equating strain and electric field accurately role in the NV–strain interaction.
predicts the qualitative nature of the NV–strain coupling, it fails Looking towards quantum applications12, our cantilever’s
to capture the quantitative nature of the strain susceptibility current zero point motion coupling of g> ¼ 0.04 Hz may be
parameters. In particular, this model predicts a value of d8 that significantly increased by miniaturizing the resonator. For
is approximately 50 times smaller than d> (ref. 18), whereas instance, a doubly clamped beam with dimensions of (2 mm,
our measurements show that d8 is approximately 1.5 times 50 nm, 50 nm) and om =2p ¼ 238 MHz has a coupling
smaller than d>. During the preparation of this manuscript, g>E180 Hz. Although having smaller strain couplings than, for
a closely related study27 reported measurements of example, quantum dot systems where the coupling can be
d8 ¼ 5.46±0.31 GHz per strain and d> ¼ 19.63±0.40 GHz per hundreds of kHz (ref. 28), the NV centre benefits from its long T2
strain using static bending of diamond cantilevers. In comparison coherence times. Assuming T ¼ 100 mK, a mechanical Q ¼ 106
with our results, we find good agreement with their value of d> and a T2 ¼ 100 ms, this doubly clamped beam achieves a single
g2 T
and find that their value of d8 is approximately three times spin cooperativity, Z ¼ 2p ?gn 2  1:6, where g ¼ om/Q is the
smaller than our measured value. We make several observations damping rate and n  is the average thermal occupation number of
in regards to this discrepancy. First, Teissier et al.27 report large the mechanical mode. We note that although smaller resonators
variations (up to one order of magnitude) in the strain would produce a larger g>, clamping losses would limit their
susceptibility parameters across NVs. Second, the AC sensing Qs29. At Tt50 K, SCD resonators have demonstrated11 Q4106.
techniques used in our work are inherently more sensitive than In the devices described here, the Hahn echo T2 times are roughly
the techniques used in ref. 27, and hence, the amplitude of 10 ms. Using NVs formed by a nitrogen delta-doping technique30
cantilever bending is significantly smaller here. Large bending and applying higher order dynamical decoupling, longer T2 times
amplitudes could lead to deviations from Euler–Bernoulli theory. are possible31 and recently, a T24500 ms has been measured at

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NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5429 ARTICLE

low temperatures32. A cooperativity Z41 enables experiments in the resonator described above, would give a coupling g> of
the quantum regime that are mediated by a coherent spin– several MHz, which presents an alternative route to accessing the
phonon interaction12. We note that the strain coupling to the quantum regime.
orbital levels of the excited state is significantly higher4,13, and for In conclusion, we have presented a novel hybrid system in
which a single NV centre spin is strain-coupled to the mechanical
motion of a macroscopic cantilever. We quantitatively measured
the NV ground-state spin coupling to axial and transverse strain,
and these results will guide theoretical investigations of the strain
coupling mechanism. Although our measurements indicate that
MPa shear does not couple significantly to the ground-state spin levels
–250 0 250 of the NV centre, we note that the cantilever-based technique
presented here can be extended in future experiments to probe
effects of shear on the NV. Furthermore, the coherent strain
1,000 detection approach we have presented can be extended to other
solid-state spin systems, such as SiC colour centres33,34. With its
800 atomic-scale spatial resolution, NV-based strain sensing could be
useful for identifying the poorly understood origins of dissipation
G|| (kHz)

600 in mechanical resonators, such as anchoring losses, which will be

instrumental in engineering higher Q resonators35. Moreover, our
400 results will provide insight into the role of strain-induced
decoherence that could ultimately limit the effectiveness of
200 many NV-based applications12,36,37. Most importantly, we
demonstrated that our system provides a feasible route to
0 accessing coherent spin–phonon interactions, with applications
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 ranging from quantum control of a macroscopic resonator to
Distance from base (μm) long-range spin–spin interactions.

Figure 3 | Single-spin strain imaging. (a) Stress profile for cantilever used
in this experiment at 250 nm of beam deflection using a finite element Methods
Experimental setup and sample preparation. The experimental setup consists of
method simulation. (b) Measured strain coupling (orange circles) as a
a home-built confocal microscope with an integrated vacuum chamber. The
function of the NV’s distance from the cantilever base for a fixed 250 nm experiments are done at room temperature and high vacuum (B10  5 Torr) to
oscillation amplitude. The grey shaded area shows the region of expected reduce mechanical dissipation in the resonators. A continuous wave laser at
strain couplings from theory including uncertainties in NV depth (13 nm) and 532 nm is used for optical pumping and readout of the NV spin, and is gated with
amplitude of driven motion (10 nm). Vertical error bars correspond to the an acousto-optic modulator (AOM). Photons emitted by the NV into the phonon
sideband are collected into a single-mode fibre and directed to a fibre-coupled
standard error from fits to the expected control sequence signal. Horizontal avalanche photodiode. For strain measurements, the degeneracy of the ms ¼ ±1
error bars correspond to the uncertainty in the NV’s lateral position. spin levels is broken by a DC magnetic field supplied by a rare earth magnet.

b c
0.6
Population in ⏐0〉

⊥
0.4
ll
0.2
 2 2 2 
0.0
/ X Y X Y / 2 3 4 5 6 7
2x 2x
Total evolution time T (μs)

Figure 4 | Measurement of transverse strain. (a) Stress profile for a cantilever during bending (red arrows). The face of the cantilever (gold square)
corresponds to the (110) plane. NVs oriented along [111] and [111] (red bonds) experience mostly transverse strain, with a small axial strain because of the
Poisson effect25. NVs oriented along [111] and [111] (green bonds) experience predominantly axial strain (see Supplementary Information). Measurements
of transverse strain are done with NVs oriented [111] and [111]. (b) XY-4 pulse sequence used to measure transverse strain. Transverse strain (in blue)
modulates the qubit splitting approximately twice as fast as axial strain (in red). (c) XY-4 spin population (see Supplementary Information) for an NV
(yellow circles) 3 mm from the base with a beam deflection of 675 nm. The expected XY-4 signal for a model considering both axial and transverse strain is
shown in black. Error bars correspond to photon counting noise.

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Awschalom, D. D. Fluorescence thermometry enhanced by the quantum
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