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Towards high-sensitivity magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond using the singlet infrared absorption

Ali Tayefeh Younesi1, Muhib Omar2,3, Arne Wickenbrock2,3, Dmitry Budker2,3,4, and Ronald Ulbricht1,*

  • *Contact author: ulbricht@mpip-mainz.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. Applied 23, 054019 – Published 7 May, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.23.054019

Abstract

The negatively charged nitrogen vacancy center in diamond is widely used for quantum sensing due to the sensitivity of the spin triplet in the electronic ground state to external perturbations such as strain and electromagnetic fields, which makes it an excellent probe for changes in these perturbations. The spin state can be measured through optically detected magnetic resonance, which is most commonly achieved by detecting the photoluminescence after exciting the spin-triplet transition. Recently, methods have been proposed and demonstrated that use the absorption of the infrared singlet transition at 1042 nm instead. These methods, however, require cryogenic temperatures or external cavities to enhance the absorption signal. Here, we report on our efforts to optimize the magnetometer sensitivity at room temperature and without cavities. We reach a sensitivity of 18pT/Hz, surpassing previously reported values, and a calculated shot-noise limit of 5pT/Hz . We also report on a defect that is native to diamond grown by chemical vapor deposition and thus absent in high-pressure high-temperature diamond, the excitation of which impacts the measured singlet absorption signal.

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Corrections

26 November, 2025

Correction: The omission of a support statement in the Acknowledgments has been fixed.

Article Text

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Applied 23, 054019– Published 7 May, 2025
  • Received 30 October 2024
  • Revised 3 February 2025
  • Accepted 31 March 2025
  • Corrected 26 November 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

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