Coherent electric field control of orbital state of a neutral nitrogen-vacancy center

The coherent control of the orbital state is crucial for realizing the extremely-low power manipulation of the color centers in diamonds. Herein, a neutrally-charged nitrogen-vacancy center, NV 0 , is proposed as an ideal system for orbital control using electric fields. The electric susceptibility in the ground state of NV 0 is estimated, and found to be comparable to that in the excited state of NV − . Also, the coherent control of the orbital states of NV 0 is demonstrated. The required power for orbital control is three orders of magnitude smaller than that for spin control, highlighting the potential for interfacing a superconducting qubit operated in a dilution refrigerator. Color centers in diamond have been proposed as a link between remote superconducting units in hybrid quantum systems, where their orbital degree of freedom is utilized. Here the authors report coherent electric-field control of the orbital state of a neutral NV center in diamond.