Full stress tensor measurement using colour centres in diamond

Abstract

Stress and strain are important factors in determining the mechanical, electronic, and optical properties of materials, relating to each other by the material's elasticity or stiffness. Both are represented by second rank field tensors with, in general, six independent components. Measurements of these quantities are usually achieved by measuring a property that depends on the translational symmetry and periodicity of the crystal lattice, such as optical phonon energies using Raman spectroscopy, the electronic band gap using cathodoluminescence, photoelasticity via the optical birefringence, or Electron Back Scattering Diffraction (EBSD). A reciprocal relationship therefore exists between the maximum sensitivity of the measurements and the spatial resolution. Furthermore, of these techniques, only EBSD and off-axis Raman spectroscopy allow measurement of all six components of the stress tensor, but neither is able to provide full 3D maps. Here we demonstrate a method for measuring the full stress tensor in diamond, using the spectral and optical polarization properties of the photoluminescence from individual nitrogen vacancy (NV) colour centres. We demonstrate a sensitivity of order 10 MPa, limited by local fluctuations in the stress in the sample, and corresponding to a strain of about 10^-5, comparable with the best sensitivity provided by other techniques. By using the colour centres as built-in local sensors, the technique overcomes the reciprocal relationship between spatial resolution and sensitivity and offers the potential for measuring strains as small as 10^-9 at spatial resolution of order 10 nm. Furthermore it provides a straightforward route to volumetric stress mapping. Aside from its value in understanding strain distributions in diamond, this new approach to stress and strain measurement could be adapted for use in micro or nanoscale sensors.

12 pages, 5 figures - supplementary informations included in appendix

References in corpus (5)

• Theory of the ground state spin of the NV- center in diamond: II. Spin solutions, time-evolution, relaxation and inhomogeneous dephasing
• Stark shift control of single optical centers in diamond
• Coherent Population Trapping of Single Spins in Diamond Under Optical Excitation
• The negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond: the electronic solution
• Full stress tensor measurement using colour centres in diamond

Cited by in corpus (15)

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• Microscopic imaging of elastic deformation in diamond via in-situ stress tensor sensors
• Spin-stress and spin-strain coupling in diamond-based hybrid spin oscillator systems
• Full stress tensor measurement using colour centres in diamond
• Alignment of the Diamond Nitrogen Vacancy Center by Strain Engineering
• Directional detection of dark matter with diamond
• Longitudinal relaxation of a nitrogen-vacancy center in a spin bath by generalized cluster-correlation expansion method
• Electron spin contrast of Purcell-enhanced nitrogen-vacancy ensembles in nanodiamonds
• Towards a quantum interface between spin waves and paramagnetic spin baths
• Optical properties of SiV and GeV color centers in nanodiamonds under hydrostatic pressures up to 180 GPa
• Single rare-earth ions as atomic-scale probes in ultra-scaled transistors
• Fourier optical processing enables new capabilities in diamond magnetic imaging
• Ultra-short strong excitation of two-level systems
• Investigation of the Stark Effect on a Centrosymmetric Quantum Emitter in Diamond
• Introduction to quantum information theory and outline of two applications to physics: the black hole information paradox and the renormalization group information flow