2023/11/10 by Maggie Haitian Wang, Michael Caouette-Mansour, Wang, Maggie +5 · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2311.06055
openalex publication_date 2023/11/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center spins in diamond offer a robust, precise and accurate magnetic sensor. As their applications move beyond the laboratory, practical considerations including size, complexity, and power consumption become important. Here, we compare two commonly-employed NV magnetometry techniques -- continuous-wave (CW) vs pulsed magnetic resonance -- in a scenario limited by total available optical power. We develop a consistent theoretical model for the magnetic sensitivity of each protocol that incorporates NV photophysics - in particular, including the incomplete spin polarization associated with limited optical power; after comparing the models' behaviour to experiments, we use them to predict the relative DC sensitivity of CW versus pulsed operation for an optical-power-limited, shot-noise-limited NV ensemble magnetometer. We find a ∼ 2-3 × gain in sensitivity for pulsed operation, which is significantly smaller than seen in power-unlimited, single-NV experiments. Our results provide a resource for practical sensor development, informing protocol choice and identifying optimal operation regimes when optical power is constrained.