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arXiv:2212.12169

Temperature Sensitivity of $^{14}\mathrm{NV}$ and $^{15}\mathrm{NV}$ Ground State Manifolds

Sean Lourette, Andrey Jarmola, Víctor M. Acosta, A. Glen Birdwell, Dmitry Budker, Marcus W. Doherty, Tony Ivanov, Vladimir S. Malinovsky

Published Dec 23, 2022• 0 citations
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Abstract

We measure electron and nuclear spin transition frequencies in the ground state of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond for two nitrogen isotopes ($^{14}\mathrm{NV}$ and $^{15}\mathrm{NV}$) over temperatures ranging from 77 K to 400 K. Measurements are performed using Ramsey interferometry and direct optical readout of the nuclear and electron spins. We extract coupling parameters $Q$ (for $^{14}\mathrm{NV}$), $D$, $A_{||}$, $A_{\perp}$, $γ_e/γ_n$, and their temperature dependences for both isotopes. The temperature dependences of the nuclear-spin transitions within the $m_s = 0$ spin manifold near room temperature are found to be +0.52(1) ppm/K for $^{14}\mathrm{NV}$ ($|m_I=-1> \leftrightarrow |m_I=+1>$) and -1.1(1) ppm/K for $^{15}\mathrm{NV}$ ($|m_I=-1/2> \leftrightarrow |m_I=+1/2>$). An isotopic shift in the zero-field splitting parameter $D$ between $^{14}\mathrm{NV}$ and $^{15}\mathrm{NV}$ is measured to be $\sim$ 120 kHz. Residual transverse magnetic fields are observed to shift the nuclear spin transition frequencies, especially for $^{15}\mathrm{NV}$. We have precisely determined the set of parameters relevant for the development of nuclear-spin-based diamond quantum sensors with greatly reduced sensitivity to environmental factors.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2212.12169

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The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond has been found to be a powerful tool for various sensing applications. In particular, in ensemble-based sensors, the main ``workhorse'' so far has been optically detected electron resonance. Utilization of the nuclear spin has the potential to significantly improve sensitivity in rotation and magnetic field sensors. Ensemble-based sensors consume a substantial amount of power, leading to noticeable heating of the diamond and thus requiring an understanding of temperature-related shifts. In this paper, we provide a detailed study of the temperature shift of the hyperfine components of the NV center.
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Ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are versatile quantum sensors with broad applications in the physical and life sciences. The concentration of neutral substitutional nitrogen ( [ N s 0 ]) strongly influences NV electronic spin coherence times, sensitivity, and optimal sensing strategies. Diamonds with [ N s 0 ] ∼ 1–10 ppm are a focus of recent material engineering efforts, with higher concentrations being favorable for continuous-wave optically detected magnetic resonance (CW-ODMR) and lower concentrations expected to benefit pulsed magnetometry techniques through extended NV spin coherence times and improved sensing duty cycles. In this work, we synthesize and characterize low- [ N s 0 ] ( ∼ 0.8 ppm), NV-enriched diamond material, engineered through low-strain chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth on high-quality substrates, 12 C isotopic purification, and controlled electron irradiation and annealing. Our results demonstrate good strain homogeneity in diamonds grown on CVD substrates and spin-bath-limited NV dephasing times. By measuring NV spin and charge properties across a wide range of optical NV excitation intensity, we provide direct comparisons of photon-shot-noise-limited magnetic field sensitivity between the current low- [ N s 0 ] and previously studied higher- [ N s 0 ] ( ∼ 14 ppm) NV-diamond sensors. We show that low- [ N s 0 ] diamond can outperform higher- [ N s 0 ] diamond at moderate and low optical NV excitation intensity. Our results provide practical benchmarks and guidance for selecting NV-diamond sensors tailored to specific experimental constraints and sensing requirements.