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Key engineering materials

Purcell and Pulse Induced Impact for Measurement Based on Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond

Lu Min Ji, Li Ye Zhao, Yu Hai Wang

Published Nov 25, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond serve as promising atomic spin systems for measurement applications requiring high accuracy and sensitivity. A key challenge in NV-based quantum sensing is minimizing spin readout noise to approach the standard quantum limit (SQL). Based on a six-level model, this work analyze the dependence of NV-based quantum sensing performance, including spin state readout noise and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), on controllable parameters such as the Purcell factor and excitation laser pulse characteristics. This study demonstrates that a shorter excitation pulse duration results in a higher saturation value of ground-state spin polarization, while the total time required for the polarization process remains constant. Additionally, the spin readout noise does not improve monotonically with decreasing excitation pulse duration; instead, it initially decreases and subsequently increases as the pulse duration varies. The spin readout noise reaches its optimal level when the pulse duration is 3 ns. Furthermore, no positive correlation exists between the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the Purcell factor, and there is also an optimal value for SNR. When the pulse duration ranges from 1 ns to 40 ns, the variation in SNR is relatively insignificant. This research offers a novel perspective for enhancing the performance of quantum sensing based on diamond defects, such as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers.

DOI
10.4028/p-hj8b48

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Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond serve as promising atomic spin systems for measurement applications requiring high accuracy and sensitivity. A key challenge in NV-based quantum sensing is minimizing spin readout noise to approach the standard quantum limit (SQL). Based on a six-level model, this work analyze the dependence of NV-based quantum sensing performance, including spin state readout noise and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), on controllable parameters such as the Purcell factor and excitation laser pulse characteristics. This study demonstrates that a shorter excitation pulse duration results in a higher saturation value of ground-state spin polarization, while the total time required for the polarization process remains constant. Additionally, the spin readout noise does not improve monotonically with decreasing excitation pulse duration; instead, it initially decreases and subsequently increases as the pulse duration varies. The spin readout noise reaches its optimal level when the pulse duration is 3 ns. Furthermore, no positive correlation exists between the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the Purcell factor, and there is also an optimal value for SNR. When the pulse duration ranges from 1 ns to 40 ns, the variation in SNR is relatively insignificant. This research offers a novel perspective for enhancing the performance of quantum sensing based on diamond defects, such as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers.
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond have emerged as promising quantum solid-state systems, with applications ranging from quantum information processing to magnetic sensing. One of the most useful properties of NVs is the ability to read their ground-state spin projection optically at room temperature. Using theoretical analysis of Purcell-enhanced NV optical coupling, we identify parameters for a significantly enhanced single-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the optical spin-state readout. We then demonstrate that a combined increase in spontaneous emission (through Purcell enhancement) and in optical excitation could significantly increase the readout SNR. Our combined analytical and numerical analysis, which is relevant for various optically active solid-state systems, differentiates between state-mixing processes and provides insights into the optimal light-matter coupling design.
Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond have emerged as promising quantum solid-state systems, with applications ranging from quantum information processing to magnetic sensing. One of the most useful properties of NVs is the ability to read their ground-state spin projection optically at room temperature. In this work we consider the effect of the Purcell enhancement on the ability to initialize the NV state and analyze the effect to imperfect initialization on the measurement SNR. We demonstrate that even with feasible initial conditions the combined increase in spontaneous emission (through Purcell enhancement) and in optical excitation could significantly increase the readout SNR.
Nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond are among the leading solid state quantum platforms, offering exceptional spatial resolution and sensitivity for applications such as magnetic field sensing, thermometry, and bioimaging. However, in high background environments,such as those encountered in in vitro diagnostics, the performance of NV based sensors can be compromised by strong background fluorescence, particularly from substrates such as nitrocellulose. In this work, we analytically and experimentally investigate the use of pulsed laser excitation combined with time gating techniques to suppress background fluorescence and enhance the signal to noise ratio in NV based quantum sensing, with an emphasis on spin enhanced biosensing. Through experimental studies using mixed ensembles of silicon vacancy and NV centers in bulk diamond, as well as fluorescent nanodiamonds on NC substrates, we demonstrate significant improvements in NV spin resonance visibility, demonstrated by an increase of the SNR by up to 4x, and a resulting measurement time reduction by 16x. The presented technique and results here can help significantly increase the readout efficiency and speed in future applications of NV centers in high background environments, such as in IVD, where the NV centers are used as a fluorescent label for biomolecules.
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in single-crystal CVD diamond are promising candidates for quantum sensing due to their remarkable optical and spin properties [1]. These defects exhibit stable photoluminescence (PL), long spin coherence times, and high sensitivity to external fields [2]. In this study, we present a room-temperature PL characterization of NV centers excited with a 532 nm laser. The setup was optimized for high signal-to-noise ratio and spectral resolution. Key parameters analyzed include emission intensity, zero-phonon line (ZPL) at ~637 nm, phonon sidebands, and the charge state distribution between NV⁰ and NV⁻. The NV⁻ state, crucial for spin-based sensing, is evaluated to understand its stability under different nitrogen doping conditions [3]. The relative intensities of NV⁰ and NV⁻ provide insights into nitrogen incorporation and vacancy formation. These results contribute to optimizing synthesis conditions for enhanced NV⁻ concentration, supporting the advancement of diamond-based quantum sensing technologies.
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond has been developed as a promising platform for quantum sensing, especially for magnetic field measurements in the nano-tesla range with a nano-meter resolution. Optical spin readout performance has a direct effect on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of experiments. In this work, we introduce an online optimization method to customize the laser waveform for readout. Both simulations and experiments reveal that our new scheme optimizes the optically detected magnetic resonance in NV center. The SNR of optical spin readout has been witnessed a 44.1% increase in experiments. In addition, we applied the scheme to the Rabi oscillation experiment, which shows an improvement of 46.0% in contrast and a reduction of 12.1% in mean deviation compared to traditional constant laser power SNR optimization. This scheme is promising to improve sensitivities for a wide range of NV-based applications in the future.
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have the advantages of stable triaxial structure, ultra-long electron spin coherence time and simple optical readout at room temperature. A nitrogen atom in the diamond crystal replaces a carbon atom and a vacancy is generated at the adjacent position, forming a point defect in the C3v space group structure. Its ground state and excited state are both spin triplet states. It is the key to achieving efficient preparation of optical initial state and extracting NV color center’s information in the researches of highly sensitive sensing magnetic detection, temperature detection, biological imaging, quantum computing, etc. However, there was no systematic study on relevant parameters of laser for high-concentration NV color center’s samples in previous experimental studies. Based on a high concentration diamond NV ensemble, we use pulsed optical detection magnetic resonance (ODMR) technology to systematically study the relationship among laser initial polarization time, information reading time and laser power, and the influence of laser incident polarization angle on the accuracy of sensing information. The effects of various laser parameters on the NV1 peak of ODMR on the [111] axis of the NVs of diamond are also investigated. The contrast of ODMR increases firstly with a sigmoid function and then decreases with an e-exponential function as the information reading time increases. The incident polarization angle of the laser is sinusoidal, with a period of 90°. According to the above experimental results, we finally choose the appropriate experimental parameters at 45.8 W/cm2 (300 μs of polarization, 700 ns, reading time, laser incident angle is 220°) for ODMR test. Compared with previous experimental parameters (polarization time was 50 us, read the time of 3000 ns, laser incident angle was 250°), the experimental results show that the contrast of ODMR increases from 2.1% to 4.6%, and the typical magnetic sensitivity is improved from 21.6 nT/Hz1/2 to 5.6 nT/Hz1/2. The optimization of the optical control of NVs in solid diamond is realized. The above results provide an effective support for the detection of high-sensitivity manipulation sensing based on high-concentration NV ensemble.