Strain coupling between nitrogen vacancy centers and the mechanical motion of a diamond optomechanical crystal resonator

Several experiments have recently demonstrated coupling between nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond and mechanical resonators via crystal strain$^{\mathrm{1}}$. In the strong coupling regime, such devices could realize applications critical to emerging quantum technologies, including phonon-mediated spin-spin interactions and mechanical cooling with the NV center$^{\mathrm{1}}$. An outstanding challenge for these devices is generating higher strain coupling in high frequency devices while maintaining the excellent coherence properties of the NV center and high mechanical quality factors. As a step toward these objectives, we demonstrate single-crystal diamond optomechanical crystal resonators with embedded NV centers. These devices host highly-confined GHz-scale mechanical modes that are isolated from mechanical clamping losses and generate strain profiles that allow for large strain coupling to NV centers far from noise-inducing surfaces. 1. D. Lee, \textit{et al.}, arXiv:1609.00418, (2016)