@article {1355, title = {Coherence of an optically illuminated single nuclear spin qubit}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {100}, year = {2008}, month = {2008/2/19}, abstract = {We investigate the coherence properties of individual nuclear spin quantum bits in diamond [Dutt et al., Science, 316, 1312 (2007)] when a proximal electronic spin associated with a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center is being interrogated by optical radiation. The resulting nuclear spin dynamics are governed by time-dependent hyperfine interaction associated with rapid electronic transitions, which can be described by a spin-fluctuator model. We show that due to a process analogous to motional averaging in nuclear magnetic resonance, the nuclear spin coherence can be preserved after a large number of optical excitation cycles. Our theoretical analysis is in good agreement with experimental results. It indicates a novel approach that could potentially isolate the nuclear spin system completely from the electronic environment. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.073001}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/0707.1341v2}, author = {Liang Jiang and M. V. Gurudev Dutt and Emre Togan and Lily Childress and Paola Cappellaro and J. M. Taylor and Mikhail D. Lukin} }