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A large-scale quantum simulator on a diamond surface at room temperature

Nature Physics volume 9, pages 168–173 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Strongly correlated quantum many-body systems may exhibit exotic phases, such as spin liquids and supersolids. Although their numerical simulation becomes intractable for as few as 50 particles, quantum simulators offer a route to overcome this computational barrier. However, proposed realizations either require stringent conditions such as low temperature/ultra-high vacuum, or are extremely hard to scale. Here, we propose a new solid-state architecture for a scalable quantum simulator that consists of strongly interacting nuclear spins attached to the diamond surface. Initialization, control and read-out of this quantum simulator can be accomplished with nitrogen-vacancy centers implanted in diamond. The system can be engineered to simulate a wide variety of strongly correlated spin models. Owing to the superior coherence time of nuclear spins and nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, our proposal offers new opportunities towards large-scale quantum simulation at ambient conditions of temperature and pressure.

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Figure 1: Lattices of fluorine nuclear spin.
Figure 2: Initialization and read-out of nuclear spins.
Figure 3: Isolation and initialization of nuclear spins.
Figure 4: Quantum magnetic phase transitions of the fluorine quantum simulation on a triangular lattice.
Figure 5: Quantum phases of superfluids and supersolids.
Figure 6: Tuning spin anisotropy with dressed states.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for valuable communications with M. Troyer, L. Pollet and B. Capogrosso-Sansone about the properties of supersolids and QMC simulations with ALPS. We also thank R. Rosenbach and J. Almeida for their help in numerical simulations. The work was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the EU Integrating Project Q-ESSENCE, the EU STREP PICC and DIAMANT, the BMBF Verbundprojekt QuOReP, DFG (FOR 1482, FOR 1493, SFB/TR 21) and DARPA. J.C. was also supported by a Marie-Curie Intra-European Fellowship (FP7). Computations were performed on the bwGRiD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Albert-Einstein Allee 11, Universität Ulm, 89069 Ulm, Germany

    Jianming Cai, Alex Retzker & Martin B. Plenio

  2. Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology, Universität Ulm, 89069 Ulm, Germany

    Jianming Cai, Fedor Jelezko & Martin B. Plenio

  3. Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Givat Ram, Israel

    Alex Retzker

  4. Institut für Quantenoptik, Albert-Einstein Allee 11, Universität Ulm, 89069 Ulm, Germany

    Fedor Jelezko

Authors
  1. Jianming Cai
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Contributions

M.B.P. proposed the idea and developed it further together with F.J. and J.C. J.C. carried out the numerical and analytical work with advice from F.J., M.B.P. and A.R. All authors discussed the results. J.C. drafted the manuscript with input from F.J., M.B.P. and A.R.

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Correspondence to Martin B. Plenio.

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Cai, J., Retzker, A., Jelezko, F. et al. A large-scale quantum simulator on a diamond surface at room temperature. Nature Phys 9, 168–173 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2519

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