Article abstract


Nature Physics 4, 810 - 816 (2008)
Published online: 14 September 2008 | doi:10.1038/nphys1075

Subject Categories: Techniques and instrumentation | Quantum physics | Condensed-matter physics

High-sensitivity diamond magnetometer with nanoscale resolution

J. M. Taylor1,7, P. Cappellaro2,3,7, L. Childress2,4, L. Jiang2, D. Budker5, P. R. Hemmer6, A. Yacoby2, R. Walsworth2,3 & M. D. Lukin2,3


The detection of weak magnetic fields with high spatial resolution is an important problem in diverse areas ranging from fundamental physics and material science to data storage and biomedical science. Here, we explore a novel approach to the detection of weak magnetic fields that takes advantage of recently developed techniques for the coherent control of solid-state electron spin quantum bits. Specifically, we investigate a magnetic sensor based on nitrogen-vacancy centres in room-temperature diamond. We discuss two important applications of this technique: a nanoscale magnetometer that could potentially detect precession of single nuclear spins and an optical magnetic-field imager combining spatial resolution ranging from micrometres to millimetres with a sensitivity approaching a few fT Hz-1/2.

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  1. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  2. Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  3. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  4. Department of Physics, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine 04240, USA
  5. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  6. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA
  7. These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence to: M. D. Lukin2,3 e-mail: lukin@physics.harvard.edu




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