Sub-second Temporal Magnetic Field Microscopy Using Quantum Defects in Diamond

TL;DR

This paper introduces a fast, widefield magnetic field imaging technique using quantum defects in diamond, achieving sub-second temporal resolution by lock-in detection of NV center photoluminescence, enabling dynamic microscale magnetic field imaging.

Contribution

The authors develop a lock-in detection protocol for NV center photoluminescence that significantly increases imaging frame rates to 50-200 fps, allowing dynamic magnetic field microscopy.

Findings

Achieved sub-second imaging of microscale magnetic fields.

Demonstrated synchronization of NV PL modulation with high-speed camera.

Enabled real-time imaging of varying microscale currents.

Abstract

Wide field-of-view magnetic field microscopy has been realised by probing shifts in optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) spectrum of Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) defect centers in diamond. However, these widefield diamond NV magnetometers require few to several minutes of acquisition to get a single magnetic field image, rendering the technique temporally static in it's current form. This limitation prevents application of diamond NV magnetometers to novel imaging of dynamically varying microscale magnetic field processes. Here, we show that the magnetic field imaging frame rate can be significantly enhanced by performing lock-in detection of NV photo-luminescence (PL), simultaneously over multiple pixels of a lock-in camera. A detailed protocol for synchronization of frequency modulated PL of NV centers with fast camera frame demodulation, at few kilohertz frequencies, has been experimentally demonstrated. This experimental technique allows magnetic field imaging of sub-second varying microscale currents in planar microcoils with imaging frame rates in the range of 50 to 200 frames per second (fps). Our work demonstrates that widefield per-pixel lock-in detection of frequency modulated NV ODMR enables dynamic magnetic field microscopy.