Optical detection of magnetic resonance in nitrogen vacancy centre ensembles in bulk diamond using an off-resonant probe laser beam

Abstract

Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centres are a type of defect in diamond that exhibit a number of interesting properties. NV centres can be optically excited around 450–650 nm and emit fluorescence at around 550–800 nm [1]. The optical excitation also spin polarises the negatively charged NV centres, permitting optical detection of magnetic resonance [2]. This allows nanotesla scale sensitive magnetometry to be performed with nanometre scale spatial resolution [3].