Electrical Control of the high spin system Mn2+ in ZnO

We examine the high spin impurity Mn$^{2+}$ in single crystal ZnO (S=5/2, I=5/2), and report a strong linear coupling (K = 52.3 rad/V/m) of the manganese electrical and magnetic moments that preserves quantum coherence. We combine pulsed EPR and electric field techniques to manipulate the Mn states and study electron spin lifetimes, finding $T_{2e}$ and $T_{1e}$ times of 0.8ms and 100ms at 2K in the natural material. We investigate the `forbidden' transitions that become allowed in the low symmetry environment and use these to manipulate the nuclear spin state on a sub-microsecond timescale that is inaccessible via ENDOR and RF techniques. Finally, we explore the existence of subspaces that are robust against strain-induced decoherence and the application of this material as an entanglement-based field sensor.