Experimental Implementation of Assisted Quantum Adiabatic Passage in a Single Spin

Quantum adiabatic passages can be greatly accelerated by a suitable control field, called a counter-diabatic field, which varies during the scan through resonance. Here, we implement this technique on the electron spin of a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. We demonstrate two versions of this scheme. The first follows closely the procedure originally proposed by Demirplak and Rice [J. Phys. Chem. A 107, 9937 (2003)]. In the second scheme, we use a control field whose amplitude is constant but whose phase varies with time. This version, which we call the rapid-scan approach, allows an even faster passage through resonance and therefore makes it applicable also for systems with shorter decoherence times.