Stabilization of Spin States of an Open System: Bichromatic Driving of Resonance Transitions in NV Ensembles in Diamond

We apply a laser and two nearly degenerate microwave fields upon an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and observe magnetic resonance structures with two component, composite shapes of nested Lorentzians with different widths. One component of them undergoes regular power-broadening, whereas the linewidth of the other one becomes power-independent and undergoes field-induced stabilization. We show that the observed width stabilization is a general phenomenon that results from competition between coherent driving and non-conservation of populations that occur in open systems. The phenomenon is interpreted in terms of specific combinations of state populations that play the role of bright and dark states.