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Microwave-free imaging magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy centers in nanodiamonds at near-zero field

Saravanan Sengottuvel1,2,*,‡, Omkar Dhungel3,4,‡, Mariusz Mrózek2, Arne Wickenbrock3,4,5, Dmitry Budker3,4,5,6, Wojciech Gawlik2, and Adam M. Wojciechowski2,†

  • *Contact author: saravanan.sengottuvel@doctoral.uj.edu.pl
  • †Contact author: a.wojciechowski@uj.edu.pl
  • ‡These authors contributed equally to this work.
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Phys. Rev. Applied 23, 034001 – Published 3 March, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.23.034001

Abstract

Magnetometry using nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) color centers in diamond predominantly relies on microwave spectroscopy. However, microwaves may hinder certain studies involving biological systems or thin conductive samples. This work demonstrates a wide-field, microwave-free imaging magnetometer utilizing N-V centers in nanodiamonds by exploiting the cross-relaxation feature near zero magnetic fields under ambient conditions without applying microwaves. For this purpose, we measure the center shift, contrast, and linewidth of zero-field cross relaxation in 140-nm nanodiamonds dropcast on a current-carrying conductive pattern while scanning a background magnetic field, achieving a sensitivity of 4.5μT/Hz. Our work allows for applying the N-V zero-field feature in nanodiamonds for magnetic-field sensing in the zero- and low-field regimes and highlights the potential for microwave-free all-optical wide-field magnetometry based on nanodiamonds.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 23, 034001– Published 3 March, 2025
  • Received 5 September 2024
  • Revised 14 January 2025
  • Accepted 31 January 2025
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