Phonon-Induced Spin-Spin Interactions in Diamond Nanostructures: Application to Spin Squeezing

We propose and analyze a novel mechanism for long-range spin-spin interactions in diamond nanostructures. The interactions between electronic spins, associated with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, are mediated by their coupling via strain to the vibrational mode of a diamond mechanical nanoresonator. This coupling results in phonon-mediated effective spin-spin interactions that can be used to generate squeezed states of a spin ensemble. We show that spin dephasing and relaxation can be largely suppressed, allowing for substantial spin squeezing under realistic experimental conditions. Our approach has implications for spin-ensemble magnetometry, as well as phonon-mediated quantum information processing with spin qubits. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.156402