Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect centers in diamond are strong candidates to generate entangled states in solid-state environments even at room temperature. Quantum correlations in spatially separated NV systems, for distances between NVs ranging from a few nanometers to a few kilometers, have been recently reported. In the present paper, we consider the entanglement transfer from two-mode microwave-squeezed (entangled) photons, which are in resonance with the two lowest NV electron spin states, to initially unentangled NV centers. We first demonstrate that the entanglement transfer process from quantum microwaves to isolated NV electron spins is feasible. We then proceed to extend the previous results to more realistic scenarios where ${}^{13}\mathrm{C}$ nuclear spin baths surrounding each NV are included, quantifying the entanglement transfer efficiency and robustness under the effects of dephasing/dissipation noisy nuclear baths. Finally, we address the issue of assessing the possibility of entanglement transfer from the squeezed microwave light to two remote nuclear spins closely linked to different NV centers.

• Received 17 February 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.075114