Acoustic Control of Spin States in Diamond Nitrogen-Vacancy Centres.

Kutsal, Emirhan; Payam, Amir Farokh; Abdel-Rahman, Eihab; Yavuz, Mustafa; Li, Lijie · Nano Lett · 2026

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We report acoustic control of spin resonance in nitrogen-vacancy (NV-) centers in diamond using low-frequency free-space sound waves. Acoustic excitation redistributes spin populations between the |+1⟩ and |-1⟩ states, producing an asymmetric, tunable double-dip ODMR spectrum without shifting resonance frequencies. This contrasts with conventional magnetic-field-induced splitting and reveals a previously unobserved mechanism for spin manipulation via strain-mediated acoustic coupling. Analytical modeling captures the essential features of the amplitude flipping and elucidates the underlying spin-strain interaction. Our findings establish a new degree of freedom for selective multimodal quantum sensing and open avenues for hybrid spin-mechanical quantum devices.