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High-Fidelity Control of a C13 Nuclear Spin Coupled to a Tin-Vacancy Center in Diamond

Jeremias Resch1,*, Ioannis Karapatzakis1,*, Mohamed Elshorbagy1, Marcel Schrodin1, Philipp Fuchs2, Philipp Graßhoff3, Luis Kussi1, Christoph Sürgers1, Cyril Popov3 et al.

Christoph Becher2, Wolfgang Wernsdorfer1,4, and David Hunger1,4,†

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: david.hunger@kit.edu
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Phys. Rev. X 16, 011060 – Published 19 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/bmc6-qvwq

Abstract

Nuclear spins near group-IV defects in diamond are promising candidates for quantum memories in quantum network applications. Here, we demonstrate high-fidelity control of a single C13 nuclear spin coupled to a tin-vacancy center in diamond. We perform a combination of optical and microwave pumping to achieve initialization into a combined electronuclear spin state with a fidelity of 99.74(3)%. Harnessing a superconducting waveguide for radio-frequency driving, we demonstrate precise nuclear-spin control: Ramsey measurements reveal a coherence time of T2*=1.5(1)  ms, and we use dynamical decoupling to extend it to 1.35(3) s. We perform randomized benchmarking, yielding a single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.92(1)%. This demonstrates a coherent spin-photon system with promising properties for quantum network nodes.

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Popular Summary

Group-IV color centers are defects in the lattice structure of diamond, possessing stable optical and addressable electron-spin transitions. For realizing robust quantum memories in quantum information processing, addressability of the longer-lived nuclear spins surrounding the group-IV color is essential. We demonstrate coherent control of a single C13 nuclear spin coupled to a tin-vacancy center using a superconducting waveguide for efficient radio-frequency driving that minimizes heat introduced into the system. By combining optical and microwave pumping, we achieve high-fidelity initialization of the electron and nuclear spins and employ dynamical decoupling to extend the nuclear spin coherence time to 1.35 s. Furthermore, we report a single-qubit gate fidelity exceeding 99.9% via randomized benchmarking. This work highlights the potential of the tin-vacancy center as a coherent spin-photon interface for future quantum network applications.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. X 16, 011060– Published 19 March, 2026
  • Received 18 August 2025
  • Accepted 9 February 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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