Electronic spin based enhancement of magnetometer sensitivity

US8547090B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• President and Fellows of Harvard College · US

Inventors

• Mikhail D. Lukin · Cambridge, US
• Ronald L. Walsworth · Cambridge, US
• Amir Yacoby · Cambridge, US
• Paola Cappellaro · Somerville, US
• Jacob M. Taylor · Washington, US
• Liang Jiang · Guilford, US
• Lilian Childress · Montréal, CA

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 3, 2008
• Grant date: Oct 1, 2013
• Expiry date: Oct 13, 2029

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01R33/60
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A method is disclosed for increasing the sensitivity of a solid state electronic spin based magnetometer that makes use of individual electronic spins or ensembles of electronic spins in a solid-state lattice, for example NV centers in a diamond lattice. The electronic spins may be configured to undergo a Zeeman shift in energy level when photons of light are applied to the electronic spins followed by pulses of an RF field that is substantially transverse to the magnetic field being detected. The method may include coherently controlling the electronic spins by applying to the electronic spins a sequence of RF pulses that dynamically decouple the electronic spins from mutual spin-spin interactions and from interactions with the lattice. The sequence of RF pulses may be a Hahn spin-echo sequence, a Can Purcell Meiboom Gill sequence, or a MREV8 pulse sequence, by way of example.