All optical detection of electric fields using single NV centers in diamond at cryogenic temperatures

Recent work [1] has shown that the response of low-temperature photoluminescence of single Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers in diamond to magnetic field can be used to determine the local effective strain experienced by the NV. This effective field is a combination of the local strain and the electric field environment. Based on these results, we here show electrometry and vector electric field tuning of a single NV center over a large range in effective fields. The latter allows for inducing significant strain-splittings as well as restoring almost perfectly the C3v symmetry of the NV. We observe charge dynamics in the diamond host, including capacitive and screening effects over a large span of frequencies, with a strong influence of the photoionization of nearby defects on the intrinsic electric field. Our results establish an electromagnetic field sensing scheme at cryogenic temperatures that takes advantage of the high sensitivity of the NV’s orbital excited states to electric fields. With it, our novel approach yields improved electrometry sensitivity compared to previous techniques based on optically detected magnetic resonance [2], combined with the key advantage of an all-optical sensing approach.

[1] Happacher, J. et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 177401 (2022)

[2] Bian, K. et al., Nat. Comm. 12, 1–9 (2021)