QuantumBW Colloquium: NV-magnetometry: challenges and opportunities for QS experiments

💡Solid-state spin defects such as nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, have emerged as powerful platforms for quantumsensing, enabling nanoscale measurements of magnetic fields, temperature, strain, and electric fields at both cryogenic temperatures as well as at ambient conditions.
Some experimental efforts in Singha's group are focused on utilizing these quantum sensors for non-invasive probing of isolated magnetic molecules on surfaces, which are difficult to access using other complementary methods. These efforts naturally require the usage of near surface NV centers (smaller than 10 nm) to gain desired magnetic sensitivity. However, such shallow NV sensors are infamous for often lacking sufficient stability of their optical and spin properties. They take advantage of their UHV experimental conditions to understand the role of the diamond surface in defining these optical and spin properties for shallow NV sensors, as well as to better engineer the diamond surface with desired surface-chemistry.
Another aspect of their current research involves two dimensional mapping of both static and dynamic magnetization profile of synthetic antiferromagnets, 2D superconductors, as well as nanoscale devices, using scanning probe NVmagnetometer. The key idea here is to characterize their local nanoscale properties which are often obscured in conventional transport measurements.
After providing a broad overview of the current research scopes in her experimental group, Singha will highlight on the current challenges and the opportunities in this vibrant field of research.