Widefield Resonant optical spectroscopy of color center arrays for quantum sensing

The negative Nitrogen Vacancy center in diamond is widely used for nanoscale magnetometry at room temperature. Its low temperature properties are on the other hand seldom used for sensing: its narrow optical resonances are well-known for their potential for quantum information but the presence of large electric dipoles is often seen as an impediment.

Here we introduce novel sensing modalities that capitalize on these specific features. First, the low power required by the sharp optical resonances enables multiplexed measurement across large arrays of sensors using wide-field microscopy. Second, we harness the charge degree of freedom and its stability under weak illumination to probe carrier dynamics and characterize NV sensors. Finally, we leverage local heterogeneities to independently read-out multiple sensors below the diffraction limit [1], which can be used to perform correlated sensing [2] of a shared environment.

These methods open up new opportunities for investigating a variety of phenomena, with applications in measuring charge transport in diamond, probing charge dynamics on the diamond surface, and studying color centers formation in CVD grown diamond. This presentation will focus on this latter application, where quantum sensors are used to characterize their own material and formation. In particular, we observe the formation of NV cluster with abnormal probabilities, which has implications for quantum information where proximal NV centers can be used as a resource .



[1] K.-H. Cheng, Z. Kazi, J. Rovny, B. Zhang, L. Nassar, J. D. Thompson, and N. P. de Leon, arXiv:2408.11666.

[2] M. Cambria, S. Chand, and S. Kolkowitz, arXiv:2408.11715.

[3] R. Monge, T. Delord, and C. A. Meriles (2023).

[4] T. Delord, R. Monge, and C. A. Meriles, Nano Lett. (2024).

[5] F. Dolde, J. Wrachtrup et al, Nature Phys 9, 3 (2013).