Proposal of room-temperature diamond maser

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel room-temperature diamond maser utilizing nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, demonstrating its feasibility and potential to advance microwave technology without the need for extreme conditions.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new design for a room-temperature solid-state maser based on NV centers in diamond, overcoming previous limitations of short emitter lifetimes and instability.

Findings

Feasibility of room-temperature diamond maser demonstrated

NV centers exhibit long spin lifetimes (~10 ms) at room temperature

Potential for broad microwave technology applications

Abstract

Lasers have revolutionized optical science and technology, but their microwave counterpart, maser, has not realized its great potential due to its demanding work conditions (high-vacuum for gas maser and liquid-helium temperature for solid-state maser). Room-temperature solid-state maser is highly desirable, but under such conditions the lifetimes of emitters (usually electron spins) are usually too short (~ns) for population inversion. The only room-temperature solid-state maser is based on a pentacene-doped p-terphenyl crystal, which has long spin lifetime (~0.1 ms). This maser, however, operates only in the pulse mode and the material is unstable. Here we propose room-temperature maser based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond, which feature long spin lifetimes at room temperature (~10 ms), high optical pump efficiency, and material stability. We demonstrate that under readily accessible conditions, room-temperature diamond maser is feasible. Room-temperature diamond maser may facilitate a broad range of microwave technologies.