Ania Bleszynski Jayich - "Quantum Sensing and Imaging with Diamond Spins”

Stanford University
APPLIED PHYSICS/PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM

Tuesday, October 8, 2019
4:30 p.m. on campus in Hewlett Teaching Center, Rm. 200

Ania Bleszynski Jayich
Dept. of Physics, University of Calif. at Santa Barbara

“Quantum Sensing and Imaging with Diamond Spins”

Quantum sensors based on optically addressable solid-state spins are powerful tools that offer high sensitivity, nanoscale spatial resolution, and quantitative field information. The nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond is the most advanced such sensor because of its robust, room-temperature coherence and its high sensitivity to a variety of fields: magnetic, electric, thermal, and strain. Here I discuss an NV-based imaging platform where we have incorporated an NV center into a scanning probe microscope and used it to image skyrmions, nanoscale topological spin textures. I also discuss recent experiments that utilize the NV center’s sensitivity to fluctuating magnetic fields to image conductivity with nanoscale spatial resolution. A grand challenge to improving the spatial resolution and magnetic sensitivity of the NV is mitigating surface-induced quantum decoherence, which I will discuss in the second part of this talk. Decoherence at interfaces is a universal problem that affects many quantum technologies, but the microscopic origins are as yet unclear. Our studies guide the ongoing development of quantum control and materials control, pushing towards the ultimate goal of NV-based single nuclear spin imaging.