Photonic-integrated quantum sensor array for microscale magnetic localisation

TL;DR

This paper presents a scalable photonic-integrated quantum sensor array using NV centers for microscale magnetic localization, demonstrating high-precision tracking and potential biomedical applications.

Contribution

The work integrates multiple NV quantum sensors on silicon-nitride photonic circuits, enabling simultaneous readout and magnetic localization with high accuracy.

Findings

Successfully localized a 30 μm needle tip with sub-dimension error

Demonstrated dynamic tracking of magnetic objects with high fidelity

Simulated monitoring of magnetic microrobots for biomedical use

Abstract

Nitrogen-vacancy centres (NVs) are promising solid-state nanoscale quantum sensors for applications ranging from material science to biotechnology. Using multiple sensors simultaneously offers advantages for probing spatiotemporal correlations of fluctuating fields or the dynamics of point defects. In this work, by integrating NVs with foundry silicon-nitride photonic integrated circuits, we realise the scalable operation of eight localised NV sensors in an array, with simultaneous, distinct readout of the individual sensors. Using the eight NV sensors and machine-learning methods for multi-point magnetic field reconstruction, we demonstrate microscale magnetic localisation of a 30 $\mu$m-sized needle tip. Experimentally, the needle tip can be localised with an error below its dimension and tracked dynamically with high fidelity. We further simulate the feasibility of our platform for monitoring the position and orientation of magnetic microrobots designed for biological and clinical purposes. Without the complexity of bulk optics, our photonic-integrated multi-sensor platform presents a step towards real-life biomedical applications under out-of-the-lab conditions.