Making diamond lit up

In-situ surface treatments allow working with near-surface quantum sensors

 

Achieveing non-invasive readout and coherent quantum control at the ultimate length scale of atoms and molecules require operations under ultra clean environments (UHV and cryogenic temperature) with highly sensitive nanoscale stable quantum sensor, such as the NV-center in diamond. However, these probes lose their sensing capabilities under such extreme measurement conditions.

By combining experiments performed at the Quantum Sensing group at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research with band bending calculations done in collaboration with the group of Professor Ádám Gali, we show that controlled diamond surface-engineering plays a crucial role in reviving such near-surface quantum probes, thus bringing high-resolution quantum sensing an important step forward.