Nanoscale Electric Field Imaging with an Ambient Scanning Quantum Sensor Microscope

Abstract

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is a promising quantum sensor with remarkably versatile sensing capabilities. While scanning NV magnetometry is well-established, NV electrometry has been so far limited to bulk diamonds. Here we demonstrate imaging external alternating (AC) and direct (DC) electric fields with a single NV at the apex of a diamond scanning tip under ambient conditions. A strong electric field screening effect is observed at low frequencies due to charge noise on the surface. We quantitatively measure its frequency dependence, and overcome this screening by mechanically oscillating the tip for imaging DC fields. Our scanning NV electrometry achieved an AC E-field sensitivity of 26 mV/µm/ √ Hz, a DC E-field gradient sensitivity of 2 V/µm 2 / √ Hz, and sub-100 nm resolution limited by the NV-sample distance. Our work represents an important step toward building a scanning-probe-based multimodal quantum sensing platform.

Relaxation Processes in Dipole-Coupled Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Zero Field: Application in Magnetometry

“…This means that we can effectively quench the double flips by splitting the |+ and |− states. The transverse field can thus be used to emulate the role of the electric field, a property that has previously been employed to increase the electric-field-sensing ability of N-V centers [32,33].…”

Spin-Relaxation of Dipolar-Coupled Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers : The role of Double-flip Processes

“…IV-F). We can thus use the transverse field to emulate the role of the electric field, a property that has previously been used to increase the electric field sensing ability of NV centers [13,27]. Fig.…”