Hybrid quantum magnetic field sensor with an electron spin and a nuclear spin in diamond

TL;DR

This paper proposes a hybrid diamond-based magnetic field sensor combining electron and nuclear spins, leveraging their complementary properties to achieve higher sensitivity than existing single-spin sensors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel sensor design that integrates electron and nuclear spins in diamond, enhancing magnetic field detection capabilities beyond prior single-spin approaches.

Findings

Hybrid sensor exhibits significantly improved sensitivity.

Hyperfine interaction enables effective spin combination.

Potential for nanoscale magnetic field detection surpassing previous methods.

Abstract

Recently, magnetic field sensors based on an electron spin of a nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond have been studied both from an experimental and theoretical point of view. This system provides a nanoscale magnetometer, and it is possible to detect a precession of a single spin. In this paper, we propose a sensor consisting of an electron spin and a nuclear spin in diamond. Although the electron spin has a reasonable interaction strength with magnetic field, the coherence time of the spin is relatively short. On the other hand, the nuclear spin has a longer life time while the spin has a negligible interaction with magnetic fields. We show that, through the combination of such two different spins via the hyperfine interaction, it is possible to construct a magnetic field sensor with the sensitivity far beyond that of previous sensors using just a single electron spin.