Imaging the Local Charge Environment of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond
At a Glance
Section titled āAt a Glanceā| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2018-12-12 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Authors | Thomas Mittiga, Satcher Hsieh, Chong Zu, Bryce Kobrin, Francisco Machado |
| Institutions | Helmholtz Institute Mainz, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| Citations | 141 |
Abstract
Section titled āAbstractāCharacterizing the local internal environment surrounding solid-state spin defects is crucial to harnessing them as nanoscale sensors of external fields. This is especially germane to the case of defect ensembles which can exhibit a complex interplay between interactions, internal fields, and lattice strain. Working with the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, we demonstrate that local electric fields dominate the magnetic resonance behavior of NV ensembles at a low magnetic field. We introduce a simple microscopic model that quantitatively captures the observed spectra for samples with NV concentrations spanning more than two orders of magnitude. Motivated by this understanding, we propose and implement a novel method for the nanoscale localization of individual charges within the diamond lattice; our approach relies upon the fact that the charge induces a NV dark state which depends on the electric field orientation.