title: Control and coherence of the optical transition of single nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond.
abstract: 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 ns, 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 postselection, we demonstrate that spectral diffusion can be overcome in this system to generate coherent photons.
authors.affiliation: Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. l.m.robledoesparza@tudelft.nl
authors.forename: Lucio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Robledo
authors.forename: Hannes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bernien
authors.forename: Ilse
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: van Weperen
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hanson