- Open Access
High-fidelity state transfer in silicon-vacancy-phononic networks with closed mechanical subsystems
Phys. Rev. Research 8, 043147 – Published 9 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/d3p6-yxps
Abstract
Building on the alternating-waveguide closed-mechanical-subsystem architecture introduced by Kuzyk and Wang [Phys. Rev. X 8, 041027 (2018)], we develop a diamond phononic network that overcomes the coupling-hierarchy bottleneck in the implementation analyzed there. Beyond replacing nitrogen-vacancy centers with silicon-vacancy (SiV) centers, we independently engineer the two relevant couplings: Localized defect modes and strong SiV orbital-strain interaction enhance the spin-phonon coupling , whereas cavity-waveguide engineering suppresses the cavity-waveguide coupling . The resulting coupling hierarchy reverses that found in earlier physical implementations of closed-mechanical-subsystem networks and places the system in the regime required for direct state transfer. This hierarchy reversal qualitatively changes the appropriate control strategy from bichromatic Mølmer-Sørensen driving to a simple direct triple swap. Within our model, the resulting protocol enables state transfer with a fidelity of 0.999 on a microsecond timescale and remains robust against mechanical dissipation, spin dephasing, and finite thermal occupation. Our results establish a distinct route for scalable solid-state phononic quantum networks.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Article Text
References (71)
- M. V. Gustafsson, T. Aref, A. F. Kockum, M. K. Ekström, G. Johansson, and P. Delsing, Propagating phonons coupled to an artificial atom, Science 346, 207 (2014).
- M. J. A. Schuetz, E. M. Kessler, G. Giedke, L. M. K. Vandersypen, M. D. Lukin, and J. I. Cirac, Universal quantum transducers based on surface acoustic waves, Phys. Rev. X 5, 031031 (2015).
- M.-A. Lemonde, S. Meesala, A. Sipahigil, M. J. A. Schuetz, M. D. Lukin, M. Loncar, and P. Rabl, Phonon networks with silicon-vacancy centers in diamond waveguides, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 213603 (2018).
- M. C. Kuzyk and H. Wang, Scaling phononic quantum networks of solid-state spins with closed mechanical subsystems, Phys. Rev. X 8, 041027 (2018).
- X. Li, M. C. Kuzyk, and H. Wang, Honeycomblike phononic networks of spins with closed mechanical subsystems, Phys. Rev. Appl. 11, 064037 (2019).
- T. Neuman, M. Eichenfield, M. E. Trusheim, L. Hackett, P. Narang, and D. Englund, A phononic interface between a superconducting quantum processor and quantum networked spin memories, npj Quantum Inf. 7, 121 (2021).
- S. Maity, L. Shao, S. Bogdanović, S. Meesala, Y.-I. Sohn, N. Sinclair, B. Pingault, M. Chalupnik, C. Chia, L. Zheng, K. Lai, and M. Lončar, Coherent acoustic control of a single silicon vacancy spin in diamond, Nat. Commun. 11, 193 (2020).
- B. Kim, H. Kurokawa, K. Sakai, K. Koshino, H. Kosaka, and M. Nomura, Diamond optomechanical cavity with a color center for coherent microwave-to-optical quantum interfaces, Phys. Rev. Appl. 20, 044037 (2023).
- F. Fung, E. Rosenfeld, J. D. Schaefer, A. Kabcenell, J. Gieseler, T. X. Zhou, T. Madhavan, N. Aslam, A. Yacoby, and M. D. Lukin, Toward programmable quantum processors based on spin qubits with mechanically mediated interactions and transport, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 263602 (2024).
- A. Iyer, Y. P. Kandel, W. Xu, J. M. Nichol, and W. H. Renninger, Coherent optical coupling to surface acoustic wave devices, Nat. Commun. 15, 3993 (2024).
- K. Kuruma, B. Pingault, C. Chia, M. Haas, G. D. Joe, D. R. Assumpcao, S. W. Ding, C. Jin, C. J. Xin, M. Yeh, N. Sinclair, and M. Lončar, Controlling interactions between high-frequency phonons and single quantum systems using phononic crystals, Nat. Phys. 21, 77 (2025).
- H. Raniwala, P. Anand, S. Krastanov, M. Eichenfield, M. Trusheim, and D. R. Englund, Spin-optomechanical cavity interfaces by deep subwavelength phonon-photon confinement, npj Quantum Inf. 11, 120 (2025).
- P. Rabl, S. J. Kolkowitz, F. H. L. Koppens, J. G. E. Harris, P. Zoller, and M. D. Lukin, A quantum spin transducer based on nanoelectromechanical resonator arrays, Nat. Phys. 6, 602 (2010).
- I. Yeo, P.-L. de Assis, A. Gloppe, E. Dupont-Ferrier, P. Verlot, N. S. Malik, E. Dupuy, J. Claudon, J.-M. Gérard, A. Auffèves, G. Nogues, S. Seidelin, J.-P. Poizat, O. Arcizet, and M. Richard, Strain-mediated coupling in a quantum dot-mechanical oscillator hybrid system, Nat. Nanotechnol. 9, 106 (2014).
- F. J. R. Schülein, E. Zallo, P. Atkinson, O. G. Schmidt, R. Trotta, A. Rastelli, A. Wixforth, and H. J. Krenner, Fourier synthesis of radiofrequency nanomechanical pulses with different shapes, Nat. Nanotechnol. 10, 512 (2015).
- M. Weiß and H. J. Krenner, Interfacing quantum emitters with propagating surface acoustic waves, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 51, 373001 (2018).
- D. Wigger, M. Weiß, M. Lienhart, K. Müller, J. J. Finley, T. Kuhn, H. J. Krenner, and P. Machnikowski, Resonance-fluorescence spectral dynamics of an acoustically modulated quantum dot, Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 033197 (2021).
- R. A. DeCrescent, Z. Wang, P. Imany, R. C. Boutelle, C. A. McDonald, T. Autry, J. D. Teufel, S. W. Nam, R. P. Mirin, and K. L. Silverman, Large single-phonon optomechanical coupling between quantum dots and tightly confined surface acoustic waves in the quantum regime, Phys. Rev. Appl. 18, 034067 (2022).
- C. Spinnler, G. N. Nguyen, Y. Wang, L. Zhai, A. Javadi, M. Erbe, S. Scholz, A. D. Wieck, A. Ludwig, P. Lodahl, L. Midolo, and R. J. Warburton, A single-photon emitter coupled to a phononic-crystal resonator in the resolved-sideband regime, Nat. Commun. 15, 9509 (2024).
- T. Descamps, T. Schetelat, J. Gao, P. J. Poole, D. Dalacu, A. W. Elshaari, and V. Zwiller, Acoustic modulation of individual nanowire quantum dots integrated into a hybrid thin-film lithium niobate photonic platform, Nano Lett. 24, 12493 (2024).
- U. von Lüpke, I. C. Rodrigues, Y. Yang, M. Fadel, and Y. Chu, Engineering multimode interactions in circuit quantum acoustodynamics, Nat. Phys. 20, 564 (2024).
- Y. W. Chu, P. Kharel, W. H. Renninger, L. D. Burkhart, L. Frunzio, P. T. Rakich, and R. J. Schoelkopf, Quantum acoustics with superconducting qubits, Science 358, 199 (2017).
- A. Bienfait, K. J. Satzinger, Y. P. Zhong, H.-S. Chang, M.-H. Chou, C. R. Conner, É. Dumur, J. Grebel, G. A. Peairs, R. G. Povey, and A. N. Cleland, Phonon-mediated quantum state transfer and remote qubit entanglement, Science 364, 368 (2019).
- M. Kounalakis, Y. M. Blanter, and G. A. Steele, Synthesizing multi-phonon quantum superposition states using flux-mediated three-body interactions with superconducting qubits, npj Quantum Inf. 5, 100 (2019).
- J. M. Kitzman, J. R. Lane, C. Undershute, P. M. Harrington, N. R. Beysengulov, C. A. Mikolas, K. W. Murch, and J. Pollanen, Phononic bath engineering of a superconducting qubit, Nat. Commun. 14, 3910 (2023).
- W. J. M. Franse, C. A. Potts, V. A. S. V. Bittencourt, A. Metelmann, and G. A. Steele, High-coherence quantum acoustics with planar superconducting qubits, Appl. Phys. Lett. 125, 183501 (2024).
- P.-B. Li, Y. Zhou, W.-B. Gao, and F. Nori, Enhancing spin-phonon and spin-spin interactions using linear resources in a hybrid quantum system, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 153602 (2020).
- Y. Zhou, C.-S. Hu, D.-Y. Lü, X.-K. Li, H.-M. Huang, Y.-C. Xiong, and X.-Y. Lü, Synergistic enhancement of spin–phonon interaction in a hybrid system, Photonics Res. 10, 1640 (2022).
- K. W. Lee, D. Lee, P. Ovartchaiyapong, J. Minguzzi, J. R. Maze, and A. C. Bleszynski Jayich, Strain coupling of a mechanical resonator to a single quantum emitter in diamond, Phys. Rev. Appl. 6, 034005 (2016).
- D. A. Golter, T. Oo, M. Amezcua, I. Lekavicius, K. A. Stewart, and H. L. Wang, Coupling a surface acoustic wave to an electron spin in diamond via a dark state, Phys. Rev. X 6, 041060 (2016).
- D. Lee, K. W. Lee, J. V. Cady, P. Ovartchaiyapong, and A. C. B. Jayich, Topical review: Spins and mechanics in diamond, J. Opt. 19, 033001 (2017).
- H. Y. Chen, E. R. MacQuarrie, and G. D. Fuchs, Orbital state manipulation of a diamond nitrogen-vacancy center using a mechanical resonator, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 167401 (2018).
- B. Pingault, J. N. Becker, C. H. H. Schulte, C. Arend, C. Hepp, T. Godde, A. I. Tartakovskii, M. Markham, C. Becher, and M. Atatüre, All-optical formation of coherent dark states of silicon-vacancy spins in diamond, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 263601 (2014).
- X.-L. Dong, P.-B. Li, T. Liu, and F. Nori, Unconventional quantum sound-matter interactions in spin-optomechanical-crystal hybrid systems, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 203601 (2021).
- X.-L. Dong, C.-P. Shen, S.-Y. Gao, H.-R. Li, H. Gao, F.-L. Li, and P.-B. Li, Chiral spin-phonon bound states and spin-spin interactions with phononic lattices, Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 023077 (2022).
- A. L. Falk, B. B. Buckley, G. Calusine, W. F. Koehl, V. V. Dobrovitski, A. Politi, C. A. Zorman, P. X. -L. Feng, and D. D. Awschalom, Polytype control of spin qubits in silicon carbide, Nat. Commun. 4, 1819 (2013).
- M. S. J. Barson, P. Peddibhotla, P. Ovartchaiyapong, K. Ganesan, R. L. Taylor, M. Gebert, Z. Mielens, B. Koslowski, D. A. Simpson, L. P. McGuinness, J. McCallum, S. Prawer, S. Onoda, T. Ohshima, A. C. Bleszynski Jayich, F. Jelezko, N. B. Manson, and M. W. Doherty, Nanomechanical sensing using spins in diamond, Nano Lett. 17, 1496 (2017).
- S. J. Whiteley, G. Wolfowicz, C. P. Anderson, A. Bourassa, H. Ma, M. Ye, G. Koolstra, K. J. Satzinger, M. V. Holt, F. J. Heremans, A. N. Cleland, D. I. Schuster, G. Galli, and D. D. Awschalom, Spin-phonon interactions in silicon carbide addressed by Gaussian acoustics, Nat. Phys. 15, 490 (2019).
- Y. I. Sohn, S. Meesala, B. Pingault, H. A. Atikian, J. Holzgrafe, M. Gündoğan, C. Stavrakas, M. J. Stanley, A. Sipahigil, J. Choi, M. Zhang, J. L. Pacheco, J. Abraham, E. Bielejec, M. D. Lukin, M. Atatüre, and M. Lončar, Controlling the coherence of a diamond spin qubit through its strain environment, Nat. Commun. 9, 2012 (2018).
- K. V. Kepesidis, M. A. Lemonde, A. Norambuena, J. R. Maze, and P. Rabl, Cooling phonons with phonons: Acoustic reservoir-engineering with silicon-vacancy centers in diamond, Phys. Rev. B 94, 214115 (2016).
- S. Meesala, Y. I. Sohn, B. Pingault, L. Shao, H. A. Atikian, J. Holzgrafe, M. Gündoğan, C. Stavrakas, A. Sipahigil, C. Chia, R. Evans, M. J. Burek, M. Zhang, L. Wu, J. L. Pacheco, J. Abraham, E. Bielejec, M. D. Lukin, M. Atatüre, and M. Lončar, Strain engineering of the silicon-vacancy center in diamond, Phys. Rev. B 97, 205444 (2018).
- M. S. Kushwaha, P. Halevi, G. Martínez, L. Dobrzynski, and B. Djafari-Rouhani, Theory of acoustic band structure of periodic elastic composites, Phys. Rev. B 49, 2313 (1994).
- M. Eichenfield, J. Chan, R. M. Camacho, K. J. Vahala, and O. Painter, Optomechanical crystals, Nature (London) 462, 78 (2009).
- C. Monroe and J. Kim, Scaling the ion trap quantum processor, Science 339, 1164 (2013).
- D. Hatanaka, I. Mahboob, K. Onomitsu, and H. Yamaguchi, Phonon waveguides for electromechanical circuits, Nat. Nanotechnol. 9, 520 (2014).
- A. Sipahigil, R. E. Evans, D. D. Sukachev, M. J. Burek, J. Borregaard, M. K. Bhaskar, C. T. Nguyen, J. L. Pacheco, H. A. Atikian, C. Meuwly, R. M. Camacho, F. Jelezko, E. Bielejec, H. Park, M. Lončar, and M. D. Lukin, An integrated diamond nanophotonics platform for quantum-optical networks, Science 354, 847 (2016).
- R. E. Evans, M. K. Bhaskar, D. D. Sukachev, C. T. Nguyen, A. Sipahigil, M. J. Burek, B. Machielse, G. H. Zhang, A. S. Zibrov, E. Bielejec, H. Park, M. Lončar, and M. D. Lukin, Photon-mediated interactions between quantum emitters in a diamond nanocavity, Science 362, 662 (2018).
- C. Hepp, T. Müller, V. Waselowski, J. N. Becker, B. Pingault, H. Sternschulte, D. Steinmüller-Nethl, A. Gali, J. R. Maze, M. Atatüre, and C. Becher, Electronic structure of the silicon vacancy color center in diamond, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 036405 (2014).
- C. Hepp, Electronic structure of the silicon vacancy color center in diamond, Ph.D. thesis, University of Saarland, 2014.
- A. N. Cleland, Foundations of Nanomechanics (Springer, Germany, 2002).
- J.-Q. Chen, Y.-F. Qiao, X.-L. Dong, X.-L. Hei, and P.-B. Li, Dissipation-assisted preparation of steady spin-squeezed states of SiV centers, Phys. Rev. A 103, 013709 (2021).
- J. R. Schrieffer and P. A. Wolff, Relation between the Anderson and Kondo Hamiltonians, Phys. Rev. 149, 491 (1966).
- J. Chan, A. H. Safavi-Naeini, J. T. Hill, S. Meenehan, and O. Painter, Optimized optomechanical crystal cavity with acoustic radiation shield, Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 081115 (2012).
- M. J. Burek, J. D. Cohen, S. M. Meenehan, N. El-Sawah, C. Chia, T. Ruelle, S. Meesala, J. Rochman, H. A. Atikian, M. Markham, D. J. Twitchen, M. D. Lukin, O. Painter, and M. Lončar, Diamond optomechanical crystals, Optica 3, 1404 (2016).
- G. S. MacCabe, H. Ren, J. Luo, J. D. Cohen, H. Zhou, A. Sipahigil, M. Mirhosseini, and O. Painter, Nano-acoustic resonator with ultralong phonon lifetime, Science 370, 840 (2020).
- D. S. Levonian, R. Riedinger, B. Machielse, E. N. Knall, M. K. Bhaskar, C. M. Knaut, R. Bekenstein, H. Park, M. Lončar, and M. D. Lukin, Optical entanglement of distinguishable quantum emitters, Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 213602 (2022).
- P.-L. Yu, K. Cicak, N. S. Kampel, Y. Tsaturyan, T. P. Purdy, R. W. Simmonds, and C. A. Regal, A phononic bandgap shield for high- membrane microresonators, Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 023510 (2014).
- R. N. Patel, Z. Y. Wang, W. Jiang, C. J. Sarabalis, J. T. Hill, and A. H. Safavi-Naeini, Single-mode phononic wire, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 040501 (2018).
- S. M. Meenehan, J. D. Cohen, G. S. MacCabe, F. Marsili, M. D. Shaw, and O. Painter, Pulsed excitation dynamics of an optomechanical crystal resonator near its quantum ground state of motion, Phys. Rev. X 5, 041002 (2015).
- Y. Tsaturyan, A. Barg, E. S. Polzik, and A. Schliesser, Ultracoherent nanomechanical resonators via soft clamping and dissipation dilution, Nat. Nanotechnol. 12, 776 (2017).
- G. Huang, A. Beccari, N. J. Engelsen, and T. J. Kippenberg, Room-temperature quantum optomechanics using an ultralow noise cavity, Nature (London) 626, 512 (2024).
- T. J. Clark, S. Bernard, J. Ma, V. Dumont, and J. C. Sankey, Optically defined phononic crystal defect, Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 226904 (2024).
- C. H. Dong, Y. D. Wang, and H. L. Wang, Optomechanical interfaces for hybrid quantum networks, Natl. Sci. Rev. 2, 510 (2015).
- H.-K. Lau and A. A. Clerk, Ground-state cooling and high-fidelity quantum transduction via parametrically driven bad-cavity optomechanics, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 103602 (2020).
- J. Zhang, C. Zhu, C. Wolff, and B. Stiller, Quantum coherent control in pulsed waveguide optomechanics, Phys. Rev. Res. 5, 013010 (2023).
- B. Vermersch, P. O. Guimond, H. Pichler, and P. Zoller, Quantum state transfer via noisy photonic and phononic waveguides, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 133601 (2017).
- X.-X. Li, B. Li, and P.-B. Li, Simulation of topological phases with color center arrays in phononic crystals, Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 013121 (2020).
- D. D. Sukachev, A. Sipahigil, C. T. Nguyen, M. K. Bhaskar, R. E. Evans, F. Jelezko, and M. D. Lukin, Silicon-vacancy spin qubit in diamond: A quantum memory exceeding 10 ms with single-shot state readout, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 223602 (2017).
- H. Ren, M. H. Matheny, G. S. MacCabe, J. Luo, H. Pfeifer, M. Mirhosseini, and O. Painter, Two-dimensional optomechanical crystal cavity with high quantum cooperativity, Nat. Commun. 11, 3373 (2020).
- Y. D. Wang and A. A. Clerk, Using dark modes for high-fidelity optomechanical quantum state transfer, New J. Phys. 14, 105010 (2012).
- A. Uhlmann, The transition probability in the state space of a -algebra, Rep. Math. Phys. 9, 273 (1976).