Cavity-enhanced room-temperature magnetometry using absorption by nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond.

We demonstrate a cavity-enhanced room-temperature magnetic field sensor based on nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. Magnetic resonance is detected using absorption of light resonant with the 1042 nm spin-singlet transition. The diamond is placed in an external optical cavity to enhance the absorption, and significant absorption is observed even at room temperature. We demonstrate a magnetic field sensitivity of 2.5 nT/Hz, and project a photon shot-noise-limited sensitivity of 70 pT/Hz for a few mW of infrared light, and a quantum projection-noise-limited sensitivity of 250 fT/Hz for the sensing volume of ∼90 µm×90 µm×200 µm.

Electromagnetically induced transparency in a diamond spin ensemble enables all-optical electromagnetic field sensing.

We use electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) to probe the narrow electron-spin resonance of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. Working with a multipass diamond chip at temperatures 6-30 K, the zero-phonon absorption line (637 nm) exhibits an optical depth of 6 and inhomogeneous linewidth of ~30 GHz FWHM. Simultaneous optical excitation at two frequencies separated by the ground-state zero-field splitting (2.88 GHz) reveals EIT resonances with a contrast exceeding 6% and FWHM down to 0.4 MHz. The resonances provide an all-optical probe of external electric and magnetic fields with a projected photon-shot-noise-limited sensitivity of 0.2 V/cm/√[Hz] and 0.1 nT/√[Hz], respectively. Operation of a prototype diamond-EIT magnetometer measures a noise floor of ~/<1 nT/√[Hz] for frequencies above 10 Hz and Allan deviation of 1.3±1.1 nT for 100 s intervals. The results demonstrate the potential of diamond-EIT devices for applications ranging from quantum-optical memory to precision measurement and tests of fundamental physics.

Temperature- and magnetic-field-dependent longitudinal spin relaxation in nitrogen-vacancy ensembles in diamond.

We present an experimental study of the longitudinal electron-spin relaxation time (T1) of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) ensembles in diamond. T1 was studied as a function of temperature from 5 to 475 K and magnetic field from 0 to 630 G for several samples with various NV and nitrogen concentrations. Our studies reveal three processes responsible for T1 relaxation. Above room temperature, a two-phonon Raman process dominates; below room temperature, we observe an Orbach-type process with an activation energy of 73(4) meV, which closely matches the local vibrational modes of the NV center. At yet lower temperatures, sample dependent cross-relaxation processes dominate, resulting in temperature independent values of T1 from milliseconds to minutes. The value of T1 in this limit depends sensitively on the magnetic field and can be tuned by more than 1 order of magnitude.

Dynamic stabilization of the optical resonances of single nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond.

We report electrical tuning by the Stark effect of the excited-state structure of single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers located ≲100 nm from the diamond surface. The zero-phonon line (ZPL) emission frequency is controllably varied over a range of 300 GHz. Using high-resolution emission spectroscopy, we observe electrical tuning of the strengths of both cycling and spin-altering transitions. Under resonant excitation, we apply dynamic feedback to stabilize the ZPL frequency. The transition is locked over several minutes and drifts of the peak position on timescales ≳100 ms are reduced to a fraction of the single-scan linewidth, with standard deviation as low as 16 MHz (obtained for an NV in bulk, ultrapure diamond). These techniques should improve the entanglement success probability in quantum communications protocols.

Temperature dependence of the nitrogen-vacancy magnetic resonance in diamond.

The temperature dependence of the magnetic-resonance spectra of nitrogen-vacancy (NV-) ensembles in the range of 280-330 K was studied. Four samples prepared under different conditions were analyzed with NV- concentrations ranging from 10 ppb to 15 ppm. For all samples, the axial zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameter D was found to vary significantly with temperature, T, as dD/dT=-74.2(7) kHz/K. The transverse ZFS parameter E was nonzero (between 4 and 11 MHz) in all samples, and exhibited a temperature dependence of dE/(EdT)=-1.4(3)x10{-4} K-1. The results might be accounted for by considering local thermal expansion. The temperature dependence of the ZFS parameters presents a significant challenge for diamond magnetometers and may ultimately limit their bandwidth and sensitivity.

Production and detection of atomic hexadecapole at Earth's magnetic field.

Optical magnetometers measure magnetic fields with extremely high precision and without cryogenics. However, at geomagnetic fields, important for applications from landmine removal to archaeology, they suffer from nonlinear Zeeman splitting, leading to systematic dependence on sensor orientation. We present experimental results on a method of eliminating this systematic error, using the hexadecapole atomic polarization moment. In particular, we demonstrate selective production of the atomic hexadecapole moment at Earth's magnetic field and verify its immunity to nonlinear Zeeman splitting. This technique promises to eliminate directional errors in all-optical atomic magnetometers, potentially improving their measurement accuracy by several orders of magnitude.

Modal analysis and nonlinear characterization of an airborne power ultrasonic transducer with rectangular plate radiator.

Some industrial processes like particle agglomeration or food dehydration among others can be enhanced by the use of power ultrasonic technologies. These technologies are based on an airborne power ultrasonic transducer (APUT) constituted by a pre-stressed Langevin-type transducer, a mechanical amplifier and an extensive plate radiator. In order to produce the desired effects in industrial processing, the transducer has to vibrate in an extensional mode driving an extensive radiator in the desired flexural mode with high amplitude displacements. Due to the generation of these high amplitude displacements in the radiator surfaces, non-linear effects like frequency shifts, hysteresis or modal interactions, among others, may be produced in the transducer behavior. When any nonlinear effect appears, when applying power, the stability and efficiency of this ultrasonic technology decreases, and the transducer may be damaged depending on the excitation power level and the nature of the nonlinearity. In this paper, an APUT with flat rectangular radiator is presented, as the active part of an innovative system with stepped reflectors. The nonlinear behavior of the APUT has been characterized numerically and experimentally in case of the modal analysis and experimentally in the case of dynamic analysis. According to the results obtained after the experiments, no modal interactions are expected, nor do other nonlinear effects.

Solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy on a nanostructured diamond chip.

Sensors using nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond are a promising tool for small-volume nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, but the limited sensitivity remains a challenge. Here we show nearly two orders of magnitude improvement in concentration sensitivity over previous nitrogen-vacancy and picoliter NMR studies. We demonstrate NMR spectroscopy of picoliter-volume solutions using a nanostructured diamond chip with dense, high-aspect-ratio nanogratings, enhancing the surface area by 15 times. The nanograting sidewalls are doped with nitrogen-vacancies located a few nanometers from the diamond surface to detect the NMR spectrum of roughly 1 pl of fluid lying within adjacent nanograting grooves. We perform 1H and 19F nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy at room temperature in magnetic fields below 50 mT. Using a solution of CsF in glycerol, we determine that 4 ± 2 × 1012 19F spins in a 1 pl volume can be detected with a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 in 1 s of integration.Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centres in diamond can be used for NMR spectroscopy, but increased sensitivity is needed to avoid long measurement times. Kehayias et al. present a nanostructured diamond grating with a high density of NV centres, enabling NMR spectroscopy of picoliter-volume solutions.