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Resonant Versus Nonresonant Spin Readout of a Nitrogen-Vacancy Center in Diamond under Cryogenic Conditions

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2023-12-05
JournalPhysical Review Letters
AuthorsRichard Monge, Tom Delord, Gergő Thiering, ƁdĆ”m Gali, Carlos A. Meriles
InstitutionsCity College of New York, HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics
Citations6

The last decade has seen an explosive growth in the use of color centers for metrology applications, the paradigm example arguably being the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. Here, we focus on the regime of cryogenic temperatures and examine the impact of spin-selective, narrow-band laser excitation on NV readout. Specifically, we demonstrate a more than fourfold improvement in sensitivity compared to that possible with nonresonant (green) illumination, largely due to a boost in readout contrast and integrated photon count. We also leverage nuclear spin relaxation under resonant excitation to polarize the ^{14}N host, which we then prove beneficial for spin magnetometry. These results open opportunities in the application of NV sensing to the investigation of condensed matter systems, particularly those exhibiting superconducting, magnetic, or topological phases selectively present at low temperatures.