Measurement of the Berry Phase in a Single Solid-State Spin Qubit

Abstract: We present measurements of the Berry Phase in a single solid-state spin qubit associated with the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. Our results demonstrate the remarkable degree of coherent control achievable in the presence of a highly complex solid-state environment. We manipulate the spin qubit geometrically by careful application of microwave radiation that creates an effective rotating magnetic field, and observe the resulting phase via spin-echo interferometry. We find good agreement with Berry's predictions within experimental errors. We also investigated the role of the environment on the geometric phase, and observed that unlike other solid-state qubit systems, the dephasing was primarily dominated by fast radial fluctuations in the path.