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Updated: May 18, 2026

Gradient Echo Quantum Memory in Warm Atomic Vapor
Published on: November 11, 2013
Tuning a spin bath through the quantum-classical transition
Friedemann Reinhard1, Fazhan Shi, Nan Zhao
13rd Physics Institute and Research Center SCoPE, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
Abstract:
We study decoherence of a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center induced by the 13C nuclear spin bath of diamond. By comparing Hahn-Echo experiments on single and double-quantum transitions of the NV triplet ground state we demonstrate that this bath can be tuned into two different regimes. At low magnetic fields, the nuclei behave as a quantum bath which causes decoherence by entangling with the NV central spin. At high magnetic fields, the bath behaves as a source of classical magnetic field noise, which creates decoherence by imprinting a random phase on the NV central spin.
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