Characterization of the photon emission statistics in nitrogen-vacancy centers

TL;DR

This paper models and experimentally investigates the photon emission statistics of a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond, providing insights into its quantum dynamics and optimizing detection protocols for magnetic sensing.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized quantum jump model for NV centers that links internal states to photon counts and enhances measurement efficiency.

Findings

Validated the model with experimental data

Optimized detection protocols for magnetic sensing

Clarified the relation between internal states and photon statistics

Abstract

We model and experimentally demonstrate the full time-dependent counting statistics of photons emitted by a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond under non-resonant laser excitation and resonant microwave control. A generalization of the quantum jump formalism for the seven electronic states involved in the fast intrinsic dynamics of an NV center provides a self-contained model that allows for the characterization of its emission and clarifies the relation between the quantum system internal states and the measurable detected photon counts. The model allows the elaboration of detection protocols to optimize the energy and time resources while maximizing the system sensitivity to magnetic-field measurements.