Optomechanical Quantum Control of a Nitrogen Vacancy Center in Diamond

We demonstrate optomechanical quantum control of the internal electronic states of a diamond nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in the resolved-sideband regime by coupling the NV to both optical fields and surface acoustic waves via a phonon-assisted optical transition and by taking advantage of the strong excited-state electron-phonon coupling of a NV center. Optomechanically-driven Rabi oscillations as well as quantum interferences between the optomechanical sideband and the direct dipole-optical transitions have been realized. These studies open the door to using resolved-sideband optomechanical coupling for quantum control of both the atom-like internal states and the motional states of a coupled NV-nanomechanical system, leading to the development of a solid-state analog of trapped ions.