Diamond NV center magnetometry

Amir Waxman, Atom Chip group, Ben-Gurion University

Negatively charged nitrogen vacancy (NV^-) centers in diamond make a promising quantum system due to their coherent properties and their conveniently manipulated spin. Hence, intensive research has been on going around the world, attempting to utilize this system to quantum information and precision measurements applications.

In particular, NV centers are attractive for magnetic sensing due to the high spatial resolution and high sensitivity they enable. Our research applies these capabilities to make a magnetic sensor operating in a large range of temperatures. We aim to use this sensor for superconducting vortex imaging.

We have constructed a structure which is composed of a thin layer of superconducting material and a diamond sample specially designed for this purpose. In parallel, we have constructed a confocal setup which is used for the optical magnetic field detection. With this setup we have so far accomplished the sensitivity of 100 nT/ÖHz .

 Although being coupled to a solid lattice, the NV centers exhibit remarkably high spin coherence. We will present the Rabi oscillations of the NV centers system as were recorded in our system, with an oscillation frequency of ~2MHz, and an ensemble coherence time of ~0.5 ms.