Raman excited spin coherences in N-V diamond

Summary form only given. The use of optical Raman interactions to excite spin coherences in solids has numerous potential applications, ranging from low-power nonlinear optics to high-temperature spectral hole burning memories to solid-state quantum computing. The interest in Raman excitation lies in the fact that the spin coherences can be efficiently excited and manipulated using optical laser fields yet are weakly coupled to the environment and hence have the long coherence lifetimes needed for optical memories and quantum computing. The interest in nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) color centers in diamond is its large optical oscillator strength. For memory, a large oscillator strength is important for high temperature operation. For quantum computing, the high optical transition rate enables the higher gate speed and the larger number of quantum logic operations that can be performed within the spin coherence lifetime.