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Quantum sensing of photonic spin density using a single spin qubit

Farid Kalhor, Li-Ping Yang, Leif Bauer, and Zubin Jacob
Phys. Rev. Research 3, 043007 – Published 1 October 2021

Abstract

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have emerged as promising room-temperature quantum sensors for probing condensed matter phenomena ranging from spin liquids, two-dimensional (2D) magnetic materials, and magnons to hydrodynamic flow of current. Here we propose and demonstrate that the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond can be used as a quantum sensor for detecting the photonic spin density, the spatial distribution of light's spin angular momentum. We exploit a single spin qubit on an atomic force microscope tip to probe the spinning field of an incident Gaussian light beam. The spinning field of light induces an effective static magnetic field in the single spin qubit probe. We perform room-temperature sensing using Bloch sphere operations driven by a microwave field (XY8 protocol). This nanoscale quantum magnetometer can measure the local polarization of light in ultra-sub-wavelength volumes. We also put forth a rigorous theory of the experimentally measured phase change using the NV center Hamiltonian and perturbation theory involving only virtual photon transitions. The direct detection of the photonic spin density at the nanoscale using NV centers in diamond opens interesting quantum metrological avenues for studying exotic phases of photons, nanoscale properties of structured light as well as future on-chip applications in spin quantum electrodynamics.

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  • Received 30 June 2021
  • Revised 12 August 2021
  • Accepted 6 September 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.043007

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
  1. Properties
Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsAtomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Farid Kalhor1,*, Li-Ping Yang1,2,*, Leif Bauer1, and Zubin Jacob1,†

  • 1School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906, USA
  • 2Center for Quantum Sciences and School of Physics, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • zjacob@purdue.edu

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Vol. 3, Iss. 4 — October - December 2021

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