Manipulating the Quantum Coherence of Optically Trapped Nanodiamonds

Lachlan W. Russell, Simon G. Ralph, Kazuma Wittick, Jean-Philippe Tetienne, David A. Simpson, and Peter J. Reece

The use of optical tweezers as a tool to facilitate nondestructive nanoscale sensing has been a growing area of research, particularly in the biological sciences. The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond has attracted significant interest in this area due to the array of sensing modalities available and the biocompatibility of the material itself. Many of the diamond sensing modalities rely on the measurement and characterization of the NV spin. Recent work has demonstrated the utility of the spin–lattice relaxation time (T1) of NV centers in nanodiamond for nanoscale magnetic sensing and spectroscopy. Here, we demonstrate spin relaxometry with optically trapped nanodiamonds. The all-optical sensing protocol we developed eliminates the spin decoherence effects of the trapping laser and can determine spin–lattice relaxation times on the order of ms. Moreover, the protocol requires relatively low trapping powers <50 mW, making it particularly applicable to biological systems.

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