Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1401.2438 · Physical Review Letters

Cavity-Enhanced Room-Temperature Magnetometry Using Absorption by Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond

Kasper Jensen, N. Leefer, Andrey Jarmola, Yannick Dumeige, Víctor M. Acosta, Pauli Kehayias, Brian Patton, Dmitry Budker

Published Apr 23, 2014• 147 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We demonstrate a cavity-enhanced room-temperature magnetic field sensor based on nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. Magnetic resonance is detected using absorption of light resonant with the 1042 nm spin-singlet transition. The diamond is placed in an external optical cavity to enhance the absorption, and significant absorption is observed even at room temperature. We demonstrate a magnetic field sensitivity of $2.5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{nT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$, and project a photon shot-noise-limited sensitivity of $70\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{pT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ for a few mW of infrared light, and a quantum projection-noise-limited sensitivity of $250\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ for the sensing volume of $\ensuremath{\sim}90\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}90\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}200\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}$.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.112.160802

Related papers

Towards high-sensitivity magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond using the singlet infrared absorption

Tayefeh Younesi, Ali, Omar, Muhib, Arne Wickenbrock +2 more

The negatively charged nitrogen vacancy center in diamond is widely used for quantum sensing due to the sensitivity of the spin triplet in the electronic ground state to external perturbations such as strain and electromagnetic fields, which makes it an excellent probe for changes in these perturbations.The spin state can be measured through optically detected magnetic resonance, which is most commonly achieved by detecting the photoluminescence after exciting the spin-triplet transition.Recently, methods have been proposed and demonstrated that use the absorption of the infrared singlet transition at 1042 nm instead.These methods, however, require cryogenic temperatures or external cavities to enhance the absorption signal.Here, we report on our efforts to optimize the magnetometer sensitivity at room temperature and without cavities.We reach a sensitivity of 18 pT/ √ Hz, surpassing previously reported values, and a calculated shot-noise limit of 5 pT/ √ Hz .We also report on a defect that is native to diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition and thus absent in high-pressure high-temperature diamond, the excitation of which impacts the measured singlet absorption signal.

Physical Review Applied•Jan 1, 2025•0 citations

Towards high-sensitivity magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond using the singlet infrared absorption

Ali Tayefeh Younesi, Muhib Omar, Arne Wickenbrock +2 more

The negatively charged nitrogen vacancy center in diamond is widely used for quantum sensing due to the sensitivity of the spin triplet in the electronic ground state to external perturbations such as strain and electromagnetic fields, which makes it an excellent probe for changes in these perturbations. The spin state can be measured through optically detected magnetic resonance, which is most commonly achieved by detecting the photoluminescence after exciting the spin-triplet transition. Recently, methods have been proposed and demonstrated that use the absorption of the infrared singlet transition at 1042 nm instead. These methods, however, require cryogenic temperatures or external cavities to enhance the absorption signal. Here, we report on our efforts to optimize the magnetometer sensitivity at room temperature and without cavities. We reach a sensitivity of 18 pT / Hz , surpassing previously reported values, and a calculated shot-noise limit of 5 pT / Hz . We also report on a defect that is native to diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition and thus absent in high-pressure high-temperature diamond, the excitation of which impacts the measured singlet absorption signal.

arXiv:2410.20876•Physical Review Applied•May 7, 2025•13 citations

Magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy ensembles in diamond based on infrared absorption in a doubly resonant optical cavity

Yannick Dumeige, Mayeul Chipaux, V. Jacques +8 more

We propose using an optical cavity to enhance the sensitivity of a magnetometer relying on the detection of the spin state of a high-density nitrogen-vacancy ensemble in diamond using infrared optical absorption. The role of the cavity is to obtain a contrast in the absorption-detected magnetic resonance approaching unity at room temperature. We project an increase in the photon shot-noise limited sensitivity of two orders of magnitude in comparison with a single-pass approach. Optical losses can limit the enhancement to one order of magnitude, which could still enable room-temperature operation. Finally, the optical cavity also allows us to use less pumping power when the cavity is resonant at both the pump and the infrared probe wavelength.

arXiv:1301.0808•Physical Review B•Apr 8, 2013•77 citations

Characterizing the nitrogen-vacancy center singlet transition and its phonon sideband for absorption-based room-temperature magnetometry

Tobias Probst, Florian Schall, Sebastian Heuft +9 more

Magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond has shown great promise in recent years. In particular, absorption-based magnetometry techniques, employing a cavity to enhance the absorption length, can improve the contrast and sensitivity compared to conventional techniques based on reading out the NV$^-$ triplet fluorescence. The absorption techniques rely on magnetic-field-dependent absorption at the NV$^-$ singlet zero phonon line at 1042$\,$nm and its phonon sideband. In a cavity-enhanced spectroscopy approach, we study pump-laser- and microwave-induced cavity signal changes at room temperature over a spectral range of 680-1050$\,$nm. Through normalization, we eliminate the cavity-enhancement effect and provide quasi-single-pass values for the absorption and optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) contrast. The highest contrast is found at 1042$\,$nm, but multiple points of high contrast are found at the peaks of the phonon sideband. Additionally, cavity-enhanced ODMR contrasts in the range of 50-80$\,\%$ are presented. We further measure the broadband singlet absorption cross section at room temperature with a novel method through microwave-induced signal changes. This method is insensitive to pump-laser-induced signal changes by other defects and quantifies the room-temperature absorption strength of the singlet transition and its entire phonon sideband. We determine the absorption cross section at 1042$\,$nm to be $σ^{\,\bigstar}_{1042}=(0.89\pm0.14)\cdot 10^{-21}\,\text{m}^2$ or $σ^{\,\blacktriangle}_{1042}=(2.9\pm0.5)\cdot 10^{-21}\,\text{m}^2$. depending on the employed 532$\,$nm NV$^-$ absorption cross section.

quant-pharXiv:2608.02060•Aug 4, 2026•0 citations

Nitrogen-vacancy ensemble magnetometry based on pump absorption

Sepehr Ahmadi, Haitham A. R. El-Ella, Adam M. Wojciechowski +4 more

We demonstrate magnetic-field sensing using an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centers by recording the variation in the pump-light absorption due to the spin-polarization dependence of the total ground-state population. Using a 532 nm pump laser, we measure the absorption of native nitrogen-vacancy centers in a chemical-vapor-deposited diamond placed in a resonant optical cavity. For a laser pump power of 0.4 W and a cavity finesse of 45, we obtain a noise floor of $\ensuremath{\sim}100 \mathrm{nT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ spanning a bandwidth up to 125 Hz. We project a photon shot-noise-limited sensitivity of $\ensuremath{\sim}1 \mathrm{pT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ by optimizing the nitrogen-vacancy concentration and the detection method.

arXiv:1712.05161•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Jan 11, 2018•24 citations

Infrared laser threshold magnetometry with a NV doped diamond intracavity etalon

Yannick Dumeige, Jean-François Roch, Fabien Bretenaker +8 more

We propose a hybrid laser system consisting of a semiconductor external cavity laser associated to an intra-cavity diamond etalon doped with nitrogen-vacancy color centers. We consider laser emission tuned to the infrared absorption line that is enhanced under the magnetic field dependent nitrogen-vacancy electron spin resonance and show that this architecture leads to a compact solid-state magnetometer that can be operated at room-temperature. The sensitivity to the magnetic field limited by the photonshot-noise of the output laser beam is estimated to be less than 1 pT/Hz. Unlike usual NV center infrared magnetometry, this method would not require an external frequency stabilized laser. Since the proposed system relies on the competition between the laser threshold and an intracavity absorption, such laser-based optical sensor could be easily adapted to a broad variety of sensing applications based on absorption spectroscopy.

arXiv:1810.08253•Optics Express•Jan 18, 2019•34 citations
We demonstrate a cavity-enhanced room-temperature magnetic field sensor based on nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. Magnetic resonance is detected using absorption of light resonant with the 1042 nm spin-singlet transition. The diamond is placed in an external optical cavity to enhance the absorption, and significant absorption is observed even at room temperature. We demonstrate a magnetic field sensitivity of 2.5  nT/Hz2.5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{nT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}2.5  nT/Hz​, and project a photon shot-noise-limited sensitivity of 70  pT/Hz70\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{pT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}70  pT/Hz​ for a few mW of infrared light, and a quantum projection-noise-limited sensitivity of 250  fT/Hz250\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}250  fT/Hz​ for the sensing volume of \ensuremath∼90  \ensuremathμm\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi90  \ensuremathμm\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi200  \ensuremathμm\ensuremath{\sim}90\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}90\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}200\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}\ensuremath∼90  \ensuremathμm\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi90  \ensuremathμm\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi200  \ensuremathμm.
The negatively charged nitrogen vacancy center in diamond is widely used for quantum sensing due to the sensitivity of the spin triplet in the electronic ground state to external perturbations such as strain and electromagnetic fields, which makes it an excellent probe for changes in these perturbations.The spin state can be measured through optically detected magnetic resonance, which is most commonly achieved by detecting the photoluminescence after exciting the spin-triplet transition.Recently, methods have been proposed and demonstrated that use the absorption of the infrared singlet transition at 1042 nm instead.These methods, however, require cryogenic temperatures or external cavities to enhance the absorption signal.Here, we report on our efforts to optimize the magnetometer sensitivity at room temperature and without cavities.We reach a sensitivity of 18 pT/ √ Hz, surpassing previously reported values, and a calculated shot-noise limit of 5 pT/ √ Hz .We also report on a defect that is native to diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition and thus absent in high-pressure high-temperature diamond, the excitation of which impacts the measured singlet absorption signal.
The negatively charged nitrogen vacancy center in diamond is widely used for quantum sensing due to the sensitivity of the spin triplet in the electronic ground state to external perturbations such as strain and electromagnetic fields, which makes it an excellent probe for changes in these perturbations. The spin state can be measured through optically detected magnetic resonance, which is most commonly achieved by detecting the photoluminescence after exciting the spin-triplet transition. Recently, methods have been proposed and demonstrated that use the absorption of the infrared singlet transition at 1042 nm instead. These methods, however, require cryogenic temperatures or external cavities to enhance the absorption signal. Here, we report on our efforts to optimize the magnetometer sensitivity at room temperature and without cavities. We reach a sensitivity of 18 pT / Hz , surpassing previously reported values, and a calculated shot-noise limit of 5 pT / Hz . We also report on a defect that is native to diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition and thus absent in high-pressure high-temperature diamond, the excitation of which impacts the measured singlet absorption signal.
We propose using an optical cavity to enhance the sensitivity of a magnetometer relying on the detection of the spin state of a high-density nitrogen-vacancy ensemble in diamond using infrared optical absorption. The role of the cavity is to obtain a contrast in the absorption-detected magnetic resonance approaching unity at room temperature. We project an increase in the photon shot-noise limited sensitivity of two orders of magnitude in comparison with a single-pass approach. Optical losses can limit the enhancement to one order of magnitude, which could still enable room-temperature operation. Finally, the optical cavity also allows us to use less pumping power when the cavity is resonant at both the pump and the infrared probe wavelength.
Magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond has shown great promise in recent years. In particular, absorption-based magnetometry techniques, employing a cavity to enhance the absorption length, can improve the contrast and sensitivity compared to conventional techniques based on reading out the NV−^-− triplet fluorescence. The absorption techniques rely on magnetic-field-dependent absorption at the NV−^-− singlet zero phonon line at 1042 \,nm and its phonon sideband. In a cavity-enhanced spectroscopy approach, we study pump-laser- and microwave-induced cavity signal changes at room temperature over a spectral range of 680-1050 \,nm. Through normalization, we eliminate the cavity-enhancement effect and provide quasi-single-pass values for the absorption and optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) contrast. The highest contrast is found at 1042 \,nm, but multiple points of high contrast are found at the peaks of the phonon sideband. Additionally, cavity-enhanced ODMR contrasts in the range of 50-80 %\,\%% are presented. We further measure the broadband singlet absorption cross section at room temperature with a novel method through microwave-induced signal changes. This method is insensitive to pump-laser-induced signal changes by other defects and quantifies the room-temperature absorption strength of the singlet transition and its entire phonon sideband. We determine the absorption cross section at 1042 \,nm to be σ1042 ★=(0.89±0.14)⋅10−21 m2σ^{\,\bigstar}_{1042}=(0.89\pm0.14)\cdot 10^{-21}\,\text{m}^2σ1042★​=(0.89±0.14)⋅10−21m2 or σ1042 ▲=(2.9±0.5)⋅10−21 m2σ^{\,\blacktriangle}_{1042}=(2.9\pm0.5)\cdot 10^{-21}\,\text{m}^2σ1042▲​=(2.9±0.5)⋅10−21m2. depending on the employed 532 \,nm NV−^-− absorption cross section.
We demonstrate magnetic-field sensing using an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centers by recording the variation in the pump-light absorption due to the spin-polarization dependence of the total ground-state population. Using a 532 nm pump laser, we measure the absorption of native nitrogen-vacancy centers in a chemical-vapor-deposited diamond placed in a resonant optical cavity. For a laser pump power of 0.4 W and a cavity finesse of 45, we obtain a noise floor of $\ensuremath{\sim}100 \mathrm{nT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ spanning a bandwidth up to 125 Hz. We project a photon shot-noise-limited sensitivity of $\ensuremath{\sim}1 \mathrm{pT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ by optimizing the nitrogen-vacancy concentration and the detection method.
We propose a hybrid laser system consisting of a semiconductor external cavity laser associated to an intra-cavity diamond etalon doped with nitrogen-vacancy color centers. We consider laser emission tuned to the infrared absorption line that is enhanced under the magnetic field dependent nitrogen-vacancy electron spin resonance and show that this architecture leads to a compact solid-state magnetometer that can be operated at room-temperature. The sensitivity to the magnetic field limited by the photonshot-noise of the output laser beam is estimated to be less than 1 pT/Hz. Unlike usual NV center infrared magnetometry, this method would not require an external frequency stabilized laser. Since the proposed system relies on the competition between the laser threshold and an intracavity absorption, such laser-based optical sensor could be easily adapted to a broad variety of sensing applications based on absorption spectroscopy.