arXiv:1610.03621 · Review of Scientific Instruments
Nuclear quantum-assisted magnetometer
Thomas Häberle, Thomas Oeckinghaus, Dominik Schmid-Lorch, Matthias Pfender, Felipe Fávaro de Oliveira, Seyed Ali Momenzadeh, Amit Finkler, Jörg Wrachtrup
Magnetic sensing and imaging instruments are important tools in biological and material sciences. There is an increasing demand for attaining higher sensitivity and spatial resolution, with implementations using a single qubit offering potential improvements in both directions. In this article we describe a scanning magnetometer based on the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond as the sensor. By means of a quantum-assisted readout scheme together with advances in photon collection efficiency, our device exhibits an enhancement in signal to noise ratio of close to an order of magnitude compared to the standard fluorescence readout of the nitrogen-vacancy center. This is demonstrated by comparing non-assisted and assisted methods in a T1 relaxation time measurement.
Magnetic sensing and imaging instruments are important tools in biological and material sciences. There is an increasing demand for attaining higher sensitivity and spatial resolution, with implementations using a single qubit offering potential improvements in both directions. In this article we describe a scanning magnetometer based on the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond as the sensor. By means of a quantum-assisted readout scheme together with advances in photon collection efficiency, our device exhibits an enhancement in signal to noise ratio of close to an order of magnitude compared to the standard fluorescence readout of the nitrogen-vacancy center. This is demonstrated by comparing non-assisted and assisted methods in a T1 relaxation time measurement.
Magnetic sensing and imaging instruments are important tools in biological and material sciences. There is an increasing demand for attaining higher sensitivity and spatial resolution, with implementations using a single qubit offering potential improvements in both directions. In this article we describe a scanning magnetometer based on the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond as the sensor. By means of a quantum-assisted readout scheme together with advances in photon collection efficiency, our device exhibits an enhancement in signal to noise ratio of close to an order of magnitude compared to the standard fluorescence readout of the nitrogen-vacancy center. This is demonstrated by comparing non-assisted and assisted methods in a T1 relaxation time measurement.
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.
Abstract Quantum sensors based on nitrogen vacancy (NV) defects in diamond have a demonstrated capability to detect nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra from proximate molecular nuclei, thereby promising an alternative with higher sensitivity to conventional NMR spectrometers for micro-scale samples. Fluorescence-based readout of these sensors is limited by higher shot noise due to the small number of emitters and photoionisation induced instabilities, meaning there is still significant scope to maximise their sensitivity and temporal resolution. In this work, we demonstrate a new readout protocol based on parameter fitting to a precise model of the NV photo-physics, thereby demonstrating an improvement of 36% in sensitivity and 85% gain in measurement speed. Whereas typical approaches to improvement involve expensive diamond material, and optical and microwave engineering, our method can be readily implemented into existing NV quantum sensing protocols.
For quantum sensing, it is vital to develop an efficient technique for determining the quantum state of the sensor. We optimize the weighting of the photoluminescence intensity for readout of the spin state of the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. We find that adopting a physical model that considers the optical transitions and relaxations of the NV center allows for an efficient readout. Our method improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the readout by 5.4% in a short time of 3 s, while the existing methods typically require 1 min of integration time. We also show that our technique enhances the readout of the nuclear spin memory. The demonstrated way is helpful for a wide range of measurements, from a few minutes to several days.
Quantum sensing has witnessed rapid development and transition from laboratories to practical applications in the past decade. Applications of quantum sensors, ranging from nanotechnologies to biosensing, are expected to benefit from quantum sensors' unprecedented spatial resolution and sensitivity. Solid-state spin systems are particularly attractive platforms for quantum sensing technologies because room temperature operation is viable while reaching the quantum limits of sensitivity. Among various solid-state spin systems, nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond demonstrated high-fidelity initialization, coherent control, and high contrast readout of the electron spin state. However, electron spin coherence due to noise from the surrounding spin bath and this environment effect limits the sensitivity of NV centers. Thus, a critical task in NV center-based quantum sensing is sensitivity enhancement through coherence protection. Several strategies, such as dynamical decoupling techniques, feedback control, and nuclear spin-assisted sensing protocols, have been developed and realized for this task. Among these strategies, nuclear spin-assisted protocols have demonstrated greater enhancement of electron spin coherence. In addition, the electron and nuclear spin pair of an NV center in diamond naturally allows the application of the nuclear spin-assisted sensitivity enhancement protocol. Owing to long nuclear coherence times, further enhancement of sensitivity can be achieved by exploiting active nuclear spins (e.g., 14N, 13C) in the proximity of an NV center as memory ancillas when coupled with the NV center. Here, we review the spin properties of NV centers, mechanisms of the nuclear spin-assisted protocol and its gate variation, and the status of quantum sensing applications in high-resolution nuclear spin spectroscopy, atomic imaging, and magnetic field sensing. We discuss the potential for commercialization, current challenges in sensitivity enhancement, and conclude with future research directions for promoting the development of nuclear spin-assisted protocol and its integration into industrial applications.
Quantum sensing uses quantum systems as sensors to capture weak signals and is providing opportunities in science and technology. The biggest challenge in quantum sensing is decoherence due to the coupling between the sensor and the environment. The dissipation will destroy the quantum coherence and reduce the performance of the sensor. Here we show that quantum sensing can be realized under dissipation by engineering the steady state of the sensor. We demonstrate this protocol with a magnetometer based on ensemble nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, while neither high-quality initialization or readout of the sensor nor sophisticated dynamical decoupling sequences are required. Thus our method provides a concise and decoherence-resistant means of quantum sensing. The frequency resolution and precision of our magnetometer are far beyond the coherence time of the sensor. Furthermore, we show that the dissipation can be engineered to improve the performance of our sensor. By increasing the laser pumping, magnetic signals in a broad audio-frequency band from dc up to 140 kHz can be tackled by our method. Besides the potential applications in magnetic sensing and imaging on the microscopic scale, our results may provide opportunities for improvement of a variety of high-precision spectroscopies based on other quantum sensors.