Mechanical multiplexer of nuclear spin states

Chudo, Hiroyuki ; Yokoi, Naoto*; Matsuo, Mamoru; Harii, Kazuya*; Suzuki, Jun*; Imai, Masaki  ; Sato, Masahiro*; Maekawa, Sadamichi*; Saito, Eiji*

A spin 1/2 is the simplest system that has been believed to support a single two-level quantum system, represented by a single resonance. We experimentally demonstrate that a spin-1/2 nucleus of F in CF exhibits an extra resonance corresponding to the emergence of the states, by mechanically rotating a sample and a coil in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements. On the basis of the Floquet formalism, we identify the emergence of the extra two-level state due to the temporal periodicity generated by the mechanical rotation (mechanical spin multiplexing) and derive an operator algebra analogous to the planar rotor algebra in an effective description of the system. The observed multiplexing allows a single spin 1/2 to carry more than two states and potentially enabling the processing of multiple quantum bits on a single spin.