arXiv subjects

Zhujing Xu

Publications and source records attributed to Zhujing Xu.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

All-mechanical coherence protection and fast control of a spin qubit

In a phononic quantum network, quantum information is stored and processed within stationary nodes defined by solid-state spins, and the information is routed between nodes by phonons. The phonon holds distinct advantages over its electromagnetic counterpart the photon, including smaller device footprints, reduced crosstalk, long coherence times at low temperatures, and strong interactions with both solid-state spins and electromagnetic waves. Enhanced interactions between a phononic cavity and a stationary qubit have been demonstrated in multiple platforms including superconducting qubits, spins in silicon carbide and spins in diamond. However, an outstanding issue is the compatibility between the spin's coupling to the resonant phononic cavity and the simultaneous use of pulse sequences to extend the coherence time of the spin by suppressing the low-frequency environmental noise. Here we demonstrate all-mechanical coherence protection of a solid-state spin qubit, where optical initialization, quantum operations, and readout are performed in a dressed basis that is highly immune to low-frequency noise and compatible with a phononic cavities. We additionally show record-high Rabi frequencies reaching 800 MHz, which allows for ultrafast quantum control. Our results establish a first step for high-fidelity, phonon-mediated quantum gates and represent a crucial advance toward robust on-chip quantum phononic networks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

A Suspended 4H-Silicon Carbide Membrane Platform for Defect Integration into Quantum Devices

4H-silicon carbide is a promising platform for solid-state quantum technology due to its commercial availability as a wide bandgap semiconductor and ability to host numerous spin-active color centers. Integrating color centers into suspended nanodevices enhances defect control and readout--key advances needed to fully harness their potential. However, challenges in developing robust fabrication processes for 4H-SiC thin films--due to the material's chemical and mechanical stability--limit their implementation in quantum applications. Here, we report on a new fabrication approach that first synthesizes suspended thin films from a monolithic platform, then patterns devices. With this technique, we fabricate and characterize structures tailored for defect integration, demonstrating 1D photonic crystal cavities, with and without waveguide interfaces, and lithium niobate on 4H-SiC acoustic cavities. This approach allows for greater fabrication flexibility--supporting high temperature annealing and heterogeneous material platform compatibility--providing a versatile platform for scalable fabrication of 4H-SiC devices for quantum technologies.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Thin Film Lithium Niobate on Diamond (LiNDa) platform for Efficient Spin-Phonon Coupling

Negatively charged silicon vacancy (SiV) center in diamonds are leading candidates for solid-state quantum memories that can be controlled using electromagnetic or acoustic waves. The latter are particularly promising due to strong strain response of SiV, enabling large spin-phonon interaction strengths. Indeed, coherent spin control via surface acoustic waves (SAW) has been demonstrated and is essential for developing on-chip phononic quantum networks. However, the absence of piezoelectricity in diamond requires interfacing with a piezoelectric material for efficient transduction and delivery of acoustic waves to spins in diamonds. Here, we demonstrate a heterogeneously integrated phononic platform that combines thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) with diamond to enable acoustic control of single SiV spins. Additionally, leveraging large SAW-induced strain at the location of SiV, we achieve coherent acoustic control of an electron spin with more than twofold improvement in Rabi frequency compared to the state-of-the-art devices based on aluminum nitride-on-diamond. This work represents a crucial step towards realizing phonon-based quantum information processing systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Observation of non-contact Casimir friction

Quantum mechanics predicts the occurrence of random electromagnetic field fluctuations, or virtual photons, in vacuum. The exchange of virtual photons between two bodies in relative motion could lead to non-contact quantum vacuum friction or Casimir friction. Despite its theoretical significance, the non-contact Casimir frictional force has not been observed and its theoretical predictions have varied widely. In this work, we report the first measurement of the non-contact Casimir frictional force between two moving bodies. By employing two mechanical oscillators with resonant frequencies far lower than those in Lorentz models of electrons in dielectric materials, we have amplified the Casimir frictional force at low relative velocities by several orders of magnitude. We directly measure the non-contact Casimir frictional force between the two oscillators and show its linear dependence on velocity, proving the dissipative nature of Casimir friction. This advancement marks a pivotal contribution to the field of dissipative quantum electrodynamics and enhances our understanding of friction at the nanoscale.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Near-field GHz rotation and sensing with an optically levitated nanodumbbell

A levitated non-spherical nanoparticle in a vacuum is ideal for studying quantum rotations and is an extremely sensitive torque and force detector. It has been proposed to probe fundamental particle-surface interactions such as the Casimir torque and the rotational quantum vacuum friction, which require it to be driven to rotate near a surface at sub-micrometer separations. Here, we optically levitate a silica nanodumbbell in a vacuum at about 430 nm away from a sapphire surface and drive it to rotate at GHz frequencies. The relative linear speed between the tip of the nanodumbbell and the surface reaches 1.4 km/s at a sub-micrometer separation. The rotating nanodumbbell near the surface demonstrates a torque sensitivity of $(5.0 \pm 1.1) \times 10^{-26} {\rm NmHz}^{-1/2}$ at room temperature. Moreover, we levitate a nanodumbbell near a gold nanograting and use it to probe the near-field intensity distribution beyond the optical diffraction limit. Our numerical simulation shows it is promising to detect the Casimir torque between a nanodumbbell and a nanograting.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Nuclear spin polarization and control in a van der Waals material

Van der Waals layered materials are a focus of materials research as they support strong quantum effects and can easily form heterostructures. Electron spins in van der Waals materials played crucial roles in many recent breakthroughs, including topological insulators, two-dimensional (2D) magnets, and spin liquids. However, nuclear spins in van der Waals materials remain an unexplored quantum resource. Here we report the first demonstration of optical polarization and coherent control of nuclear spins in a van der Waals material at room temperature. We use negatively-charged boron vacancy ($V_B^-$) spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride to polarize nearby nitrogen nuclear spins. Remarkably, we observe the Rabi frequency of nuclear spins at the excited-state level anti-crossing of $V_B^-$ defects to be 350 times larger than that of an isolated nucleus, and demonstrate fast coherent control of nuclear spins. We also detect strong electron-mediated nuclear-nuclear spin coupling that is 5 orders of magnitude larger than the direct nuclear spin dipolar coupling, enabling multi-qubit operations. Nitrogen nuclear spins in a triangle lattice will be suitable for large-scale quantum simulation. Our work opens a new frontier with nuclear spins in van der Waals materials for quantum information science and technology.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Switching and amplifying three-body Casimir effects

The dynamics of three interacting objects has been investigated extensively in Newtonian gravitational physics (often termed the three-body problem), and is important for many quantum systems, including nuclei, Efimov states, and frustrated spin systems. However, the dynamics of three macroscopic objects interacting through quantum vacuum fluctuations (virtual photons) is still an unexplored frontier. Here, we report the first observation of Casimir interactions between three isolated macroscopic objects. We propose and demonstrate a three terminal switchable architecture exploiting opto-mechanical Casimir interactions that can lay the foundations of a Casimir transistor. Beyond the paradigm of Casimir forces between two objects in different geometries, our Casimir transistor represents an important development for control of three-body virtual photon interactions and will have potential applications in sensing and information processing with the Casimir effect.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

On-chip optical levitation with a metalens in vacuum

Optical levitation of dielectric particles in vacuum is a powerful technique for precision measurements, testing fundamental physics, and quantum information science. Conventional optical tweezers require bulky optical components for trapping and detection. Here we design and fabricate an ultrathin dielectric metalens with a high numerical aperture of 0.88 at 1064 nm in vacuum. It consists of 500 nm-thick silicon nano-antennas, which are compatible with ultrahigh vacuum. We demonstrate optical levitation of nanoparticles in vacuum with a single metalens. The trapping frequency can be tuned by changing the laser power and polarization. We also transfer a levitated nanoparticle between two separated optical tweezers. Optical levitation with an ultrathin metalens in vacuum provides opportunities for a wide range of applications including on-chip sensing. Such metalenses will also be useful for trapping ultacold atoms and molecules.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

High-contrast plasmonic-enhanced shallow spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride for quantum sensing

The recently discovered spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), a layered van der Waals material, have great potential in quantum sensing. However, the photoluminescence and the contrast of the optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) of hBN spin defects are relatively low so far, which limits their sensitivity. Here we report a record-high ODMR contrast of 46$\%$ at room temperature, and simultaneous enhancement of the photoluminescence of hBN spin defects by up to 17-fold by the surface plasmon of a gold-film microwave waveguide. Our results are obtained with shallow boron vacancy spin defects in hBN nanosheets created by low-energy He$^+$ ion implantation, and a gold-film microwave waveguide fabricated by photolithography. We also explore the effects of microwave and laser powers on the ODMR, and improve the sensitivity of hBN spin defects for magnetic field detection. Our results support the promising potential of hBN spin defects for nanoscale quantum sensing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Non-reciprocal energy transfer through the Casimir effect

A fundamental prediction of quantum mechanics is that there are random fluctuations everywhere in a vacuum because of the zero-point energy. Remarkably, quantum electromagnetic fluctuations can induce a measurable force between neutral objects, known as the Casimir effect, which has attracted broad interests. The Casimir effect can dominate the interaction between microstructures at small separations and has been utilized to realize nonlinear oscillation, quantum trapping, phonon transfer, and dissipation dilution. However, a non-reciprocal device based on quantum vacuum fluctuations remains an unexplored frontier. Here we report quantum vacuum mediated non-reciprocal energy transfer between two micromechanical oscillators. We modulate the Casimir interaction parametrically to realize strong coupling between two oscillators with different resonant frequencies. We engineer the system's spectrum to have an exceptional point in the parameter space and observe the asymmetric topological structure near it. By dynamically changing the parameters near the exceptional point and utilizing the non-adiabaticity of the process, we achieve non-reciprocal energy transfer with high contrast. Our work represents an important development in utilizing quantum vacuum fluctuations to regulate energy transfer at the nanoscale and build functional Casimir devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

5D cooling and nonlinear dynamics of an optically levitated nanodumbbell

Optically levitated nonspherical particles in vacuum are excellent candidates for torque sensing, rotational quantum mechanics, high-frequency gravitational wave detection, and multiple other applications. Many potential applications, such as detecting the Casimir torque near a birefringent surface, require simultaneous cooling of both the center-of-mass motion and the torsional vibration (or rotation) of a nonspherical nanoparticle. Here we report the first 5D cooling of a levitated nanoparticle. We cool the 3 center-of-mass motion modes and 2 torsional vibration modes of a levitated nanodumbbell in a linearly-polarized laser simultaneously. The only uncooled rigid-body degree of freedom is the rotation of the nanodumbbell around its long axis. This free rotation mode does not couple to the optical tweezers directly. Surprisingly, we observe that it strongly affects the torsional vibrations of the nanodumbbell. This work deepens our understanding of the nonlinear dynamics and rotation coupling of a levitated nanoparticle and paves the way towards full quantum control of its motion.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Quantum information processing with closely-spaced diamond color centers in strain and magnetic fields

Electron and nuclear spins of diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are good candidates for quantum information processing as they have long coherence time and can be initialized and read out optically. However, creating a large number of coherently coupled and individually addressable NV centers for quantum computing has been a big challenge. Here we propose methods to use high-density diamond NV centers coupled by spin-spin interaction with an average separation on the order of 10 nm for quantum computing. We propose to use a strain gradient to encode the position information of each NV center in the energy level of its excited electron orbital state, which causes a shift of its optical transition frequency. With such strain encoding, more than 100 closely-packed NV centers below optical diffraction limit can be read out individually by resonant optical excitation. A magnetic gradient will be used to shift the electron spin resonant (ESR) frequencies of NV centers. Therefore, the spin state of each NV center can be individually manipulated and different NV centers can be selectively coupled. A universal set of quantum operations for two-qubit and three-qubit system is introduced by careful design of external drives. Moreover, entangled states with multiple qubits can be created by this protocol, which is a major step towards quantum information processing with solid-state spins.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Ultrasensitive torque detection with an optically levitated nanorotor

Torque sensors such as the torsion balance enabled the first determination of the gravitational constant by Cavendish and the discovery of Coulomb's law. Torque sensors are also widely used in studying small-scale magnetism, the Casimir effect, and other applications. Great effort has been made to improve the torque detection sensitivity by nanofabrication and cryogenic cooling. The most sensitive nanofabricated torque sensor has achieved a remarkable sensitivity of $10^{-24} \rm{Nm}/\sqrt{\rm{Hz}}$ at millikelvin temperatures in a dilution refrigerator. Here we dramatically improve the torque detection sensitivity by developing an ultrasensitive torque sensor with an optically levitated nanorotor in vacuum. We measure a torque as small as $(1.2 \pm 0.5) \times 10^{-27} \rm{Nm}$ in 100 seconds at room temperature. Our system does not require complex nanofabrication or cryogenic cooling. Moreover, we drive a nanoparticle to rotate at a record high speed beyond 5 GHz (300 billion rpm). Our calculations show that this system will be able to detect the long-sought vacuum friction near a surface under realistic conditions. The optically levitated nanorotor will also have applications in studying nanoscale magnetism and quantum geometric phase.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2018

Stable emission and fast optical modulation of quantum emitters in boron nitride nanotubes

Atom-like defects in two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) have recently emerged as a promising platform for quantum information science. Here we investigate single-photon emissions from atomic defects in boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs). We demonstrate the first optical modulation of the quantum emission from BNNTs with a near-infrared laser. This one-dimensional system displays bright single-photon emission as well as high stability at room temperature and is an excellent candidate for optomechanics. The fast optical modulation of single-photon emission from BNNTs shows multiple electronic levels of the system and has potential applications in optical signal processing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Optically Levitated Nanodumbbell Torsion Balance and GHz Nanomechanical Rotor

Levitated optomechanics has great potentials in precision measurements, thermodynamics, macroscopic quantum mechanics and quantum sensing. Here we synthesize and optically levitate silica nanodumbbells in high vacuum. With a linearly polarized laser, we observe the torsional vibration of an optically levitated nanodumbbell in vacuum. The linearly-polarized optical tweezer provides a restoring torque to confine the orientation of the nanodumbbell, in analog to the torsion wire which provides restoring torque for suspended lead spheres in the Cavendish torsion balance. Our calculation shows its torque detection sensitivity can exceed that of the current state-of-the-art torsion balance by several orders. The levitated nanodumbbell torsion balance provides rare opportunities to observe the Casimir torque and probe the quantum nature of gravity as proposed recently. With a circularly-polarized laser, we drive a 170-nm-diameter nanodumbbell to rotate beyond 1~GHz, which is the fastest nanomechanical rotor realized to date. Our calculations show that smaller silica nanodumbbells can sustain rotation frequency beyond 10 GHz. Such ultrafast rotation may be used to study material properties and probe vacuum friction.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2017

Detecting Casimir torque with an optically levitated nanorod

The linear momentum and angular momentum of virtual photons of quantum vacuum fluctuations can induce the Casimir force and the Casimir torque, respectively. While the Casimir force has been measured extensively, the Casimir torque has not been observed experimentally though it was predicted over forty years ago. Here we propose to detect the Casimir torque with an optically levitated nanorod near a birefringent plate in vacuum. The axis of the nanorod tends to align with the polarization direction of the linearly polarized optical tweezer. When its axis is not parallel or perpendicular to the optical axis of the birefringent crystal, it will experience a Casimir torque that shifts its orientation slightly. We calculate the Casimir torque and Casimir force acting on a levitated nanorod near a birefringent crystal. We also investigate the effects of thermal noise and photon recoils on the torque and force detection. We prove that a levitated nanorod in vacuum will be capable of detecting the Casimir torque under realistic conditions.

quant-ph↗