Sayeef Salahuddin

We show that a coupling exists between nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond in proximity to magnetoelastic spin waves generated by a voltage driven surface acoustic wave. Experimental measurements show the presence of coupling driven by both dipolar fields induced by a spin wave-like excitation and off-resonant coupling of the NV energy levels driven by acoustically driven ferromagnetic resonance dynamics. A model is proposed based on chiral coupling of the NV centers to the stray field that originates from a propagating magnetoelastic wave in a thin magnet, and model predictions are validated by experimental observations. Understanding of the coupling enables a direct measurement of the stray field polarization, which in turn provides a detailed picture of the resonantly coupled magnon–phonon interaction.