Crystal Damage Mapping with NV Centers in Diamond for Directional Dark Matter Detection

A proposed diamond-based detector for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter would combine the advantages of solid-state semiconductor detectors with directional detection capability, allowing WIMP searches below the neutrino floor. This crucially relies on the ability to detect and map damage to the diamond crystal lattice at the nanoscale, to determine the direction of incoming WIMP candidates. Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers are a prime candidate to enable this because of their strain sensitivity and well-characterized quantum properties. We present recent progress on techniques using NV centers to locate and map nuclear-recoil-induced damage, including crystal lattice strain and induced lattice vacancies.