Detecting spins by their fluorescence with a microwave photon counter

Quantum emitters respond to resonant illumination by radiating part of the absorbed energy. A component of this radiation field is phase coherent with the driving tone, whereas another component is incoherent and consists of spontaneously emitted photons, forming the fluorescence signal1. Atoms, molecules and colour centres are routinely detected by their fluorescence at optical frequencies, with important applications in quantum technology2,3 and microscopy4–7. By contrast, electron spins are usually detected by the phase-coherent echoes that they emit in response to microwave driving pulses8. The incoherent part of their radiation—a stream of microwave photons spontaneously emitted upon individual spin relaxation events—has not been observed so far because of the low spin radiative decay rate and of the lack of single microwave photon detectors (SMPDs). Here using superconducting quantum devices, we demonstrate the detection of a small ensemble of donor spins in silicon by their fluorescence at microwave frequencies and millikelvin temperatures. We enhance their radiative decay rate by coupling them to a high-quality-factor and small-mode-volume superconducting resonator9, and we connect the device output to a newly developed SMPD10 based on a superconducting qubit. In addition, we show that the SMPD can be used to detect spin echoes and that standard spin characterization measurements (Rabi nutation and spectroscopy) can be achieved with both echo and fluorescence detection. We discuss the potential of SMPD detection as a method for magnetic resonance spectroscopy of small numbers of spins.