Quantum microscopy with van der Waals heterostructures

Abstract

Quantum microscopes based on solid-state spin quantum sensors have recently emerged as powerful tools for probing material properties and physical processes in regimes not accessible to classical sensors, especially on the nanoscale. Such microscopes have already found utility in a variety of problems, from imaging magnetism and charge transport in nanoscale devices, to mapping remanent magnetic fields from ancient rocks and biological organisms. However, applications of quantum microscopes have so far relied on sensors hosted in a rigid, three-dimensional crystal, typically diamond, which limits their ability to closely interact with the sample under study. Here we demonstrate a versatile and robust quantum microscope using quantum sensors embedded within a thin layer of a van der Waals (vdW) material, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). To showcase the capabilities of this platform, we assemble several active vdW heterostructures, with an hBN layer acting as the quantum sensor. We demonstrate time-resolved, simultaneous temperature and magnetic imaging near the Curie temperature of a vdW ferromagnet as well as apply this unique microscope to map out charge currents and Joule heating in graphene. By enabling intimate proximity between sensor and sample, potentially down to a single atomic layer, the hBN quantum sensor represents a paradigm shift for nanoscale quantum sensing and microscopy. Moreover, given the ubiquitous use of hBN in modern materials and condensed matter physics research, we expect our technique to find rapid and broad adoption in these fields, further motivated by the prospect of performing in-situ chemical analysis and noise spectroscopy using advanced quantum sensing protocols.

References in corpus (10)

• 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures
• Real-space imaging of non-collinear antiferromagnetic order with a single spin magnetometer
• Sub-nanoscale Temperature, Magnetic Field and Pressure sensing with Spin Centers in 2D hexagonal Boron Nitride
• Room-temperature optically detected magnetic resonance of single defects in hexagonal boron nitride
• Room Temperature Coherent Control of Spin Defects in hexagonal Boron Nitride
• High-contrast plasmonic-enhanced shallow spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride for quantum sensing
• Wide Field Imaging of van der Waals Ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2 by Spin Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• In-plane magnetic domains and Néel-like domain walls in thin flakes of the room temperature CrTe${}_2$ van der Waals ferromagnet
• Wide-field spectral super-resolution mapping of optically active defects in hBN
• Improved current density and magnetisation reconstruction through vector magnetic field measurements

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Wide Field Imaging of van der Waals Ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2 by Spin Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• Nuclear spin polarization and control in a van der Waals material