Nanoscale Vector Electric Field Imaging Using a Single Electron Spin

Michael S.J. Barson, Lachlan M. Oberg, Liam P. McGuinness, Andrej Denisenko, Neil B. Manson, Jörg Wrachtrup, Marcus W. Doherty*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    30 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The ability to perform nanoscale electric field imaging of elementary charges at ambient temperatures will have diverse interdisciplinary applications. While the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is capable of high-sensitivity electrometry, demonstrations have so far been limited to macroscopic field features or detection of single charges internal to the diamond itself. In this work, we greatly extend these capabilities by using a shallow NV center to image the electric field of a charged atomic force microscope tip with nanoscale resolution. This is achieved by measuring Stark shifts in the NV spin-resonance due to AC electric fields. We demonstrate a near single-charge sensitivity of ηe = 5.3 charges/√Hz and subelementary charge detection (0.68e). This proof-of-concept experiment provides the motivation for further sensing and imaging of electric fields using NV centers in diamond.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2962-2967
    Number of pages6
    JournalNano Letters
    Volume21
    Issue number7
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 14 Apr 2021

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