Searching for exotic spin-dependent interactions with diamond-based vector magnetometer

Abstract

We propose a new method to search for exotic spin-spin interactions between electrons and nucleons using a diamond-based vector magnetometer. The vector magnetometer can be constructed from ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy centers along different axes in a diamond. The N14 nuclear spins of nitrogen-vacancy centers in the same diamond can be polarized through the dynamic nuclear polarization method to serve as spin sources. With the vector magnetometer, the sought-after exotic interactions can be distinguished from the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction. For the axion-mediated interaction VPP, new upper bounds of the coupling |gPegPN| are expected within the force range from 10 nm to 100 μm. For the Z′-mediated interaction VAA, new upper bounds of the coupling |gAegAN| are expected within the force range from 10 nm to 1 cm. The new upper bounds for VPP and VAA are both expected to be more than 5 orders of magnitude more stringent than existing constraints at the force range of 1 μm with the total measurement time of 1 day. Published by the American Physical Society 2024