@article {3277, title = {Excited-state spin coherence of a
single nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond}, journal = {Nature
Physics}, volume = {6}, number = {9}, year = {2010}, note =
{646KXTimes Cited:0Cited References Count:27}, month = {09},
pages = {668-672}, abstract = {Nitrogen-vacancy centres in
diamond are a solid-state analogue of trapped atoms, with fine
structure in both the ground and excited states that may be used
for advanced quantum control. These centres are promising
candidates for spin-based quantum information processing1-3 and
magnetometry4-6 at room temperature. Knowledge of the excited-
state (ES) structure and coherence is critical to evaluating the
ES as a room-temperature quantum resource, for example for a
fast, optically gated swap operation with a nuclear-spin
memory(7). Here we report experiments that probe the ES-spin
coherence of single nitrogen-vacancy centres. Using a
combination of pulsed-laser excitation and nanosecond-scale
microwave manipulation, we observed ES Rabi oscillati