Time-resolved magnetic sensing is of great importance from fundamental studies to applications in physical and biological sciences. Recently, the nitrogen-vacancy defect center in diamond has been developed as a promising sensor of magnetic fields under ambient conditions. However, methods to reconstruct time-resolved magnetic fields with high sensitivity are not yet fully developed. Here, we propose and demonstrate a sensing method based on spin echo and Haar wavelet transformation. Our method is exponentially faster in reconstructing time-resolved magnetic fields with comparable sensitivity than existing methods. It is also easier to implement in experiments. Furthermore, the wavelet's unique features enable our method to extract information from the whole signal with only part of the measuring sequences. We then explore this feature for a fast detection of simulated nerve impulses. These results will be useful to time-resolved magnetic sensing with quantum probes at nanoscale.
Time-resolved magnetic sensing is of great importance from fundamental studies to applications in physical and biological sciences. Recently, the nitrogen-vacancy defect center in diamond has been developed as a promising sensor of magnetic fields under ambient conditions. However, methods to reconstruct time-resolved magnetic fields with high sensitivity are not yet fully developed. Here, we propose and demonstrate a sensing method based on spin echo and Haar wavelet transformation. Our method is exponentially faster in reconstructing time-resolved magnetic fields with comparable sensitivity than existing methods. It is also easier to implement in experiments. Furthermore, the wavelet's unique features enable our method to extract information from the whole signal with only part of the measuring sequences. We then explore this feature for a fast detection of simulated nerve impulses. These results will be useful to time-resolved magnetic sensing with quantum probes at nanoscale.
In modern-day quantum metrology, quantum sensors are widely employed to detect weak magnetic fields or nanoscale signals. Quantum devices, exploiting quantum coherence, are inevitably connected to physical constants and can achieve accuracy, repeatability, and precision approaching fundamental limits. As a result, these sensors have shown utility in a wide range of research domains spanning both science and technology. A rapidly emerging quantum sensing platform employs atomic-scale defects in crystals. In particular, magnetometry using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond has garnered increasing interest. NV systems possess a combination of remarkable properties, optical addressability, long coherence times, and biocompatibility. Sensors based on NV centers excel in spatial resolution and magnetic sensitivity. These diamond-based sensors promise comparable combination of high spatial resolution and magnetic sensitivity without cryogenic operation. The above properties of NV magnetometers promise increasingly integrated quantum measurement technology, as a result, they have been extensively developed with various protocols and find use in numerous applications spanning materials characterization, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), condensed matter physics, paleomagnetism, neuroscience and living systems biology, and industrial vector magnetometry. In this chapter, NV centers are explored for magnetic sensing in a number of contexts. In general, we introduce novel regimes for magnetic-field probes with NV ensembles. Specifically, NV centers are developed for sensitive magnetometers for applications where microwaves (MWs) are prohibitively invasive and operations need to be carried out under zero ambient magnetic field. The primary goal of our discussion is to improve the utility of these NV center-based magnetometers.
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) ensembles are viable magnetometers to be implemented on nanosatellites for monitoring geomagnetic fluctuations, which are credible precursors for predicting earthquakes at short notice. In this work, a Haar wavelet-based quantum sensing method is proposed to reconstruct the time-varying waveform of geomagnetic fluctuations in the very low frequency band. To collect different frequency components of fluctuations waveform at once, we propose a schematic to employ multiple NV ensembles (NVEs), with each controlled by an independent microwave source. Berry sequences are applied on one set of NVEs to extract the scaling coefficients from accumulated geometric phases to reconstruct near-dc components of a waveform. Spin-echo sequences are applied to another set of NVEs to extract the Haar wavelet coefficients from the dynamic phases to reconstruct high-frequency components. The efficacy of the proposed sensing protocol implemented on multiple NVEs is validated by reconstructing a waveform of geomagnetic fluctuations from a DEMETER satellite dataset through simulations. Each NVE is assumed to containN=108uncorrelated NV centers. The application of a Berry sequence to each NVE can achieve the maximum detectable magnetic field of over460μT, resolving the issues of phase ambiguity and hyperfine-induced detuning if conventional Ramsey sequence were applied. The feasibility of the proposed simulation scenario considering spin-bath noise within an NVE is justified by simulations. The effects of wavelet scales, Rabi frequency in Berry sequence, and number of NV centers in each NVE are analyzed. The proposed NVE quantum sensors operated with the proposed sensing protocol can be installed on nanosatellites to monitor global geomagnetic fluctuations, with sub-μs temporal resolution in the near future.
Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are atom-scale defects that can be used to sense magnetic fields with high sensitivity and spatial resolution. Typically, the magnetic field is measured by averaging sequential measurements of single NV centers, or by spatial averaging over ensembles of many NV centers, which provides mean values that contain no nonlocal information about the relationship between two points separated in space or time. Here, we propose and implement a sensing modality whereby two or more NV centers are measured simultaneously, and we extract temporal and spatial correlations in their signals that would otherwise be inaccessible. We demonstrate measurements of correlated applied noise using spin-to-charge readout of two NV centers and implement a spectral reconstruction protocol for disentangling local and nonlocal noise sources.
Among the possible defects that can occur in diamonds, one that draws attention is the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center.Studied since the early 90s, in recent years, they became one of the most promising platforms for field applications of quantum technology at room temperature, especially for quantum sensing.They are sensitive to electric and magnetic fields, temperature, and strain, making these nanosensors a versatile platform for many applications.The NV center's spin state is easy to read and manipulate by optical means, and, most interestingly, it works well at room temperature, which facilitates its use.The great challenge to implement quantum protocols and quantum algorithms is the coherence time of the quantum states.The NV center stands out for having relatively high coherence times at room temperature.This dissertation presents measurements to characterize the electron spin coherence of NV centers in an ultrapure sample of diamond designed for quantum sensing applications.These measurements combine optical e magnetic resonance techniques.For that, a method was implemented using a conventional CCD camera and a clever imaging protocol, making it possible to perform various pulsed microwave experiments on the electron spin, such as Rabi oscillations and Hahn spin-echo, which were used for determining the characteristic relaxation times (T 1 and T 2 ).Results show that this system provides at least two readily accessible qubits that can be used in quantum protocols even at room temperature.
Quantum technologies are expected to significantly change our world in the next decades and the possible applications are diverse – ranging from quantum computation and encryption to metrology with unprecedented sensitivity. This thesis focuses on quantum sensing and imaging based on single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond to measure magnetic fields. Its electronic spin qualifies this point defect as a highly sensitive quantum sensor and its atomic size offers nanoscale spatial resolution. The simple optical initialisation and readout, together with the relatively long coherence time at ambient conditions, make NV centres promising candidates for biological applications and in particular for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) on the nanoscale. Recording the spectral information on the nanoscale allows to determine the structure of single or just a few molecules. However, the current main problems and challenges include insufficient spectral resolution, artificial signals and overall poor performance. In this thesis new spectroscopic techniques which tackle these issues are presented. First, it is shown that by randomisation of control pulse phases spurious harmonic signals can be suppressed, which otherwise complicate spectrum interpretation and can lead to false signal identification. At the same time the effects of pulse imperfections are mitigated. Furthermore, a protocol allowing to measure with a coherence independent spectral resolution is presented. It is demonstrated that linewidths below 1mHz are possible, which is an improvement of more than seven orders of magnitude compared to traditional methods. Due to its simple implementation, the protocol is relevant for many applications. Initially developed to measure signals oscillating up to several megahertz, it is further shown that modifications allow to extend the frequency range into the gigahertz domain. Finally, quantum frequency discrimination with the task to differentiate between two frequency distributions using a quantum sensor is analysed. An optimised protocol is introduced and the influences of different readout strategies are discussed with respect to the probability to make an incorrect decision. These findings are useful for diagnostic tests in NMR.
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is a quantum defect in diamond with unique properties for use in high-sensitive, high-resolution quantum sensors of magnetic fields. One of the most interesting and challenging application of NV quantum sensors is nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging (nano-MRI), which would enable to address single biomolecules. To this goal, improving the sensitivity of the NV sensor is a crucial task. Here, we present a quantum optimal control method that optimizes the sensitivity of NV sensor to specific weak magnetic signals with biologically-relevant, complex spectrum. The method, based on the mapping of the sensing problem on a problem of energy optimization of an Ising chain, allows us to improve sensitivity by three orders of magnitude compared to standard control sequences.