We demonstrate coherent control of the optical transition of single Nitrogen-Vacancy defect centers in diamond. On applying short resonant laser pulses, we observe optical Rabi oscillations with a half-period as short as 1 nanosecond, an order of magnitude shorter than the spontaneous emission time. By studying the decay of Rabi oscillations, we find that the decoherence is dominated by laser-induced spectral jumps. By using a low-power probe pulse as a detuning sensor and applying post-selection, we demonstrate that spectral diffusion can be overcome in this system to generate coherent photons.
@article{arxiv.1005.4428,
title = {Control and coherence of the optical transition of single defect centers in diamond},
author = {Lucio Robledo and Hannes Bernien and Ilse van Weperen and Ronald Hanson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.4428},
year = {2010}
}