Probing spin dynamics in atomically thin materials with quantum sensors

Investigating the dimension dependence of spin-dynamics in solid-state systems gives more insight into the many-body physics at play. However, realizing a two-dimensional array of spins in a solid-state system is challenging and the experiments are further complicated due to the presence of disorder. Here two-dimensional materials can be useful with their variable thickness, well-defined geometry and low disorder. In this project we use shallow Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond to detect the spin dynamics of nuclear spins in layered materials such as hBN [1]. Thanks to a quantum-memory enhanced sensing protocol, we can measure spin diffusion in atomically thin materials placed on the diamond surface. In the sensing protocol, the probe is the NV electron spin which prints phase information onto the memory, the NV nitrogen nuclear spin, through entanglement. The nitrogen nuclear spin being less sensitive to the environment, allows the storage of information on a longer timescale compared to the standard sensing scheme [2]. Furthermore, the optical readout is enhanced by single shot readout of the memory spin.

[1] I. Lovchinsky et al. Science 355 (2017) 6324

[2] N. Aslam et al. Science 357 (2017) 67