2018/10/16 by Sougato Bose, Bose, Sougato, Gavin W. Morley +1
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1810.07045
openalex publication_date 2018/10/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A free-falling nanodiamond containing a nitrogen vacancy centre in a spin superposition should experience a superposition of forces in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. We propose a practical design that brings the internal temperature of the diamond to under 10 K. This extends the expected spin coherence time from 2 ms to 500 ms, so the spatial superposition distance could be increased from 0.05 nm to over 1 μm, for a 1 μm diameter diamond and a magnetic inhomogeneity of only 104 T/m. The low temperature allows single-shot spin readout, reducing the number of nanodiamonds that need to be dropped by a factor of 10,000. We also propose solutions to a generic obstacle that would prevent such macroscopic superpositions.