Photoelectrical readout of the electronic spin state of the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is attracting significant interest due to the numerous advantages it possesses compared with conventional fluorescence readout. The higher charge carrier rate compared to the photon rate and the integration of the detection scheme on a chip can significantly advance quantum sensing and computing with color centers in diamond. Until now, photoelectric readout has been performed on ensembles of NV centers or single NV centers deep in ultrapure diamond substrates. However, many applications require the artificial creation and precise placement of shallow NV centers, and photoelectric detection of such centers has been challenging. Here we demonstrate photoelectrical readout and coherent control of the electronic spin of implanted shallow ($\sim$10 nm) NV centers buried by diamond overgrowth. The photoelectrically measured Ramsey
T2∗ agrees with conventional fluorescence readout and shows no measurable dependence on the readout photocurrent, for both shallow implanted and deep ingrown NV centers. We further find that overgrowth improves photoelectric readout by suppressing the background photocurrent. These results establish photoelectric readout as a viable route to chip-integrated, electrically detected nanoscale sensing and to spin registers based on engineered shallow NV centers.
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are of great interest for nano- and macro-scale magnetic field sensing. Most sensing protocols rely on conventional optical readout, which is limited by photon shot noise. The recently developed photoelectrical (PE) readout of the NV center electron spin state promises to overcome these limitations. However, the noise of the PE readout and its influence on readout efficiency have not been thoroughly studied. In this work, we perform magnetic field sensing and estimate the sensitivity using optical and PE readout with a single and an ensemble of NV centers in diamond. We investigate the electronic noise associated with the photoelectric detection and estimate the readout efficiency, using Gaussian statistics. Our quantitative analysis shows that the Johnson-Nyquist noise-limited photoelectric magnetic field sensitivity could outperform optical measurements by an order of magnitude. This work is an essential step towards the development of on-chip magnetometers using photoelectrical detection in diamond.