Four-order power reduction in nanoscale electron-nuclear double resonance with a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond

TL;DR

This paper introduces an energy-efficient method for detecting nuclear spins using NV centers in diamond, significantly reducing microwave power and improving spectral resolution at high magnetic fields.

Contribution

The authors develop a phase-modulation electron-nuclear double resonance scheme that reduces microwave power by over 250 times and cancels spectral broadening, enhancing nano-scale nuclear spin detection.

Findings

Microwave power reduced to 1/250 of previous methods

Achieved nuclear-spin spectral resolution of 2.1 kHz at 1840 Gs

Significant cancellation of microwave-induced line broadening

Abstract

Detecting nuclear spins using single Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers is of particular importance in nano-scale science and engineering, but often suffers from the heating effect of microwave fields for spin manipulation, especially under high magnetic fields. Here, we realize an energy-efficient nano-scale nuclear-spin detection using a phase-modulation electron-nuclear double resonance scheme. The microwave field can be reduced to 1/250 of previous requirements and the corresponding power is over four orders lower. Meanwhile, the microwave-induced broadening to the line-width of the spectroscopy is significantly canceled and we achieve a nuclear-spin spectrum with a resolution down to 2.1 kHz under a magnetic field at 1840 Gs. The spectral resolution can be further improved by upgrading the experimental control precision. This scheme can also be used in sensing microwave fields and extended to a wide range of applications in the future.