Spin mechanics with levitating ferromagnetic particles

Abstract

The authors propose a new platform for spin-mechanics experiments, in which nitrogen-vacancy (NV) electron spins are coupled to the librational motion of ferromagnetic particles levitating in an electrostatic Paul trap. They experimentally demonstrate magnetic librational confinement of ferromagnetic particles exceeding state-of-the-art NV decoherence rates, offering prospects for resolved side-band operations. Two schemes are proposed for implementing spin-mechanics coupling. Either nonlevitating diamonds could be placed near the trap, or hybrid diamond/ferromagnetic particles could be directly trapped. By implementing the second scheme, readout of the librational motion by the NV spins is demonstrated.