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Optically-driven nuclear-spin-selective Rabi oscillations of single electron spins in diamond

Optically-driven Rabi oscillations of single electron spins in a diamond nitrogen vacancy center are realized with two Raman-resonant optical pulses that are detuned from the respective dipole optical transitions. The Rabi oscillations are nuclear-spin selective and are robust against rapid decoherence of the underlying optical transitions, opening the door to generating phonon-mediated spin entanglement in an optically-driven spin-phonon system. A direct comparison between the Rabi oscillations and simulated Raman adiabatic passage along with a detailed theoretical analysis provide a wealth of information on the coherent spin dynamics and in particular reveal that decoherence and environmental fluctuations associated with the optical transitions affect the fidelity of the Rabi oscillations through relatively large jumps in the transition frequencies.