Nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond: internal dynamics and nanoscale measurements

Abstract

This thesis represents several steps in the development of Nitrogen-Vacancy Nanodiamond as an effective optical label for biological measurements and as a tool for nanometry and quantum information techniques. In this thesis I cover concrete progress in many areas of nanodiamond research, demonstrating that optical interactions alone can be used to control NV spin polarisation and measure NV temperature. I develop a method for high-contrast imaging of NV centres using magnetic modulation, and also show a method for measuring the Raman scattering of water to an unprecedented level of accuracy. This thesis also contains the outlines of two more experiments: one aimed at measuring NV concentration in aqueous nanodiamond suspensions, and another whose aim is to use multiple NV centres in a single nanodiamond to measure the orientation and strength of an external magnetic field.iii