Radio-Frequency Electric Field Sensing Based on a Single Solid-State Spin

Abstract

Nanoscale amplitude and phase sensing of a rf electromagnetic field can benefit broad frontiers in science and technology. The imaging applications in these research areas demand a nanoscale sensor able to detect rf electric fields over a wide frequency range under ambient conditions, which remains a challenge. Here, we present a rf electrometry based on the forbidden magnetic dipole transition of a single shallow nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond and experimentally demonstrate the detection of rf electric fields at frequencies ranging from 13.85 MHz to 2.02 GHz. A sensitivity of $265\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{V}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{Hz}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$ for amplitude measurement and a standard deviation of ${0.2}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ for phase measurement are achieved. The potential applications of nanoscale sensing and imaging of electromagnetic field are discussed.