The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center, an atom-like defect in diamond, has recently emerged as a promising platform for applications in quantum information science and quantum metrology. NV centers can be manipulated much like single trapped atoms. They can be isolated and addressed individually using optical microscopy; microwave radiation can be used to control their electrons’ spins and tunable lasers can be used, at cryogenic temperatures, to drive coherent transitions between electronic orbital states. However, the fact that an NV center is surrounded not by vacuum but by a solid diamond lattice presents both experimental challenges and new opportunities.
We use the NV center’s atom-like properties to probe its interactions with the diamond lattice. I will describe how phonons, quantized vibrations of the diamond lattice, drive the intersystem crossing process, a decay mechanism that plays a crucial role in the NV center’s optical dynamics. I will also discuss our recent efforts to use coherent population trapping to probe and manipulate nuclear spins embedded in the diamond lattice.