Magnetic imaging with shallow spins in nitrogen delta-doped diamond*

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) electronic spins in diamond are atomic-size sensors of magnetism at the nanoscale. Shallow NVs with long spin coherence times ($T_2$) are desirable for ultrasensitive magnetometry. However, $T_2$ tends to decrease for shallow NVs, which couple most strongly to external spins. To optimize magnetic sensitivity, it was recently shown that delta-doping nitrogen during chemical vapor deposition of single-crystal diamond (SCD) can produce films with a $<5$ nm thick layer of NVs that retain long $T_2$ [1]. Here, using a magnetic field gradient produced by a scanning probe, we investigate optically-detected magnetic resonance measurement protocols to simultaneously determine the relative and absolute depths of the NVs in SCD films containing multiple doped layers separated by a few nm. A consistent comparison of NV properties, such as $T_2$, versus depth is important for engineering spin placement. Furthermore, this magnetic field gradient technique enables sub-diffraction imaging of NV centers, which itself will be explored for high resolution NV-based magnetometry. [1] K. Ohno et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 082413 (2012).