Cryogenic Nitrogen-Vacancy Scanning Microscope

The Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) electron spin is a quantum sensor of magnetic field, with high sensitivity in a wide range of frequencies and extremely high spatial resolution. Most NV magnetometry experiments are performed by stationary NVs in a bulk crystal measuring a nearby sample. This limits the spatial resolution to the optical diffraction limit and strongly limits the sample which can be measured. Recently, a scanning technique was developed to overcome these issues, in which the NV is located on a tip that can be scanned over a sample.
In addition, most NV experiments are performed at room temperatures, while many of the unexplored phenomena in condensed matter physics occur at cryogenic temperatures.
Our lab has been working on a setup which aims to address both issues, implementing a cryogenic scanning NV setup. This setup allows us to work in a variable temperature from ~1.7K up to room temperature. In this talk we describe the details of our scanning microscope and its advantages in measuring condensed-matter phenomeana, and present preliminary scanning results.