Correlated sensing of stochastic coulomb fields in interacting NV clusters

The NV center in diamond is a versatile spin qubit widely used for nanoscale magnetometry and electrometry. Here we demonstrate a new sensing modality, where correlating noise across centers in sub-diffraction NV clusters allows us to study charge dynamics at the nanoscale. We further show strong (classical) Coulomb interaction between neighboring NVs, a step towards NV-NV entanglement through electrical means.

Our experiments leverage low temperature (7K) resonant excitation of NV- to simultaneously read-out the electric field at four nearby NVs [1]. We first exploit NV-NV Coulomb interaction to map out the position of each NVs and then perform repetitive read-out of common stochastic Coulomb fields (spectral diffusion in the bulk). By correlating the electric noise across dimensions and NVs, we identify and localize discrete charge traps in 3D [2].

These results open intriguing opportunities for the microscopic characterization of photo-carrier dynamics and for the manipulation of nanoscale spin-qubit clusters connected via electric fields.

[1] R. Monge, T. Delord, C. Meriles, Nature Nanotechnology, 2023, in press.

[2] T. Delord, R. Monge, C. Meriles, in preparation.