Minimizing sensor-sample distances in scanning nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry
arXiv:2503.04244 · doi:10.1021/acsnano.4c18460
Abstract
Scanning magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond has led to significant advances in the sensitive imaging of magnetic systems. The spatial resolution of the technique, however, remains limited to tens to hundreds of nanometers, even for probes where NV centers are engineered within 10 nm from the tip apex. Here, we present a correlated investigation of the crucial parameters that determine the spatial resolution: the mechanical and magnetic stand-off distances, as well as the sub-surface NV center depth in diamond. We study their contributions using mechanical approach curves, photoluminescence measurements, magnetometry scans, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of surface adsorbates. We first show that the stand-off distance is mainly limited by features on the surface of the diamond tip, hindering mechanical access. Next, we demonstrate that frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM) feedback partially overcomes this issue, leading to closer and more consistent magnetic stand-off distances (26-87 nm) compared to the more common amplitude-modulated (AM-AFM) feedback (43-128 nm). FM operation thus permits improved magnetic imaging of sub-100-nm spin textures, shown for the spin cycloid in BFO and domain walls in a CoFeB synthetic antiferromagnet. Finally, by examining 1H and 19F NMR signals in soft contact with a polytetrafluoroethylene surface, we demonstrate a minimum NV-to-sample distance of 7.9+/-0.4 nm.
Accepted Version. 34 pages, 6 figures. Supporting Information available on request. This project was supported in part by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, H2020-MSCA-ITN-2020; Project acronym SPEAR; Grant Agreement No. 955671
References in corpus (47)
- Magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond
- Dynamical decoupling and noise spectroscopy with a superconducting flux qubit
- A robust, scanning quantum system for nanoscale sensing and imaging
- Imaging Electronic Correlations in Twisted Bilayer Graphene near the Magic Angle
- Scanning magnetic field microscope with a diamond single-spin sensor
- Probing magnetism in 2D materials at the nanoscale with single spin microscopy
- Strongly Correlated Chern Insulators in Magic-Angle Twisted Bilayer Graphene
- Imaging viscous flow of the Dirac fluid in graphene
- Real-space imaging of non-collinear antiferromagnetic order with a single spin magnetometer
- Scanned probe imaging of nanoscale magnetism at cryogenic temperatures with a single-spin quantum sensor
- The nature of domain walls in ultrathin ferromagnets revealed by scanning nanomagnetometry
- Probing surface noise with depth-calibrated spins in diamond
- Quantitative nanoscale vortex-imaging using a cryogenic quantum magnetometer
- Origins of diamond surface noise probed by correlating single spin measurements with surface spectroscopy
- Imaging current-induced switching of antiferromagnetic domains in CuMnAs
- Stray-field imaging of magnetic vortices with a single diamond spin
- Nanoscale nuclear magnetic resonance with a 1.9-nm-deep nitrogen-vacancy sensor
- Proton magnetic resonance imaging with a nitrogen-vacancy spin sensor
- NMR Technique for Determining the Depth of Shallow Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond
- Measuring the quantum efficiency of single radiating dipoles using a scanning mirror
- Nano-engineered Diamond Waveguide as a Robust Bright Platform for Nanomagnetometry Using Shallow Nitrogen Vacancy Centers
- Fast current-induced skyrmion motion in synthetic antiferromagnets
- Magnetic domains and domain wall pinning in two-dimensional ferromagnets revealed by nanoscale imaging
- Nanoscale imaging of current density with a single-spin magnetometer
- Imaging non-collinear antiferromagnetic textures via single spin relaxometry
- Spin Microscope Based on Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance
- Diamond surface engineering for molecular sensing with nitrogen-vacancy centers
- Nanoscale mechanics of antiferromagnetic domain walls
- Single Defect Center Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy on Graphene
- Direct measurement of interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in X/CoFeB/MgO heterostructures with a scanning-NV magnetometer
- Skyrmion morphology in ultrathin magnetic films
- Nanomagnetism of magnetoelectric granular thin-film antiferromagnets
- Local dynamics of topological magnetic defects in the itinerant helimagnet FeGe
- Co-existence of Bloch and Neel walls in a collinear antiferromagnet
- Observation of current whirlpools in graphene at room temperature
- Characterization of room-temperature in-plane magnetization in thin flakes of CrTe with a single spin magnetometer
- Parabolic diamond scanning probes for single spin magnetic field imaging
- Single spin sensing of domain wall structure and dynamics in a thin film skyrmion host
- Measuring the magnetic moment density in patterned ultrathin ferromagnets with submicron resolution
- Single Nitrogen-Vacancy-NMR of Amine-Functionalized Diamond Surfaces
- Imaging ferroelectric domains with a single-spin scanning quantum sensor
- Imaging of sub-A currents in bilayer graphene using a scanning diamond magnetometer
- (111)-oriented, single crystal diamond tips for nanoscale scanning probe imaging of out-of-plane magnetic fields
- Multicone Diamond Waveguides for Nanoscale Quantum Sensing
- Atomic Layer Deposition Nucleation Dependence on Diamond Surface Termination
- A Planar Scanning Probe Microscope
- Increasing the photon collection rate from a single NV center with a silver mirror