DIAMOND MAGNETOMETER

• US 20170146615A1
• Filed: 11/20/2015
• Published: 05/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Squtec Tti GmbH
• Original Assignee: Jorg Wrachtrup
• Inventors: Wolf, Thomas, Neumann, Philipp, Wrachtrup, Jrg
• Granted Patent: US 9,851,418 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/6402 Atomic fluorescence; Laser induced fluorescence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/6408 with measurement of decay time, time resolved fluorescence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/6489 Photoluminescence of semiconductors
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/032 using magneto-optic devices, e.g. Faraday or Cotton-Mouton effect

Abstract

A magnetometer comprising:

• • a sensor formed of diamond material and comprising a plurality of spin centres;
  • a microwave source configured to subject the plurality of spin centres to microwave pulses;
  • a light source configured to subject the plurality of spin centres to light pulses; and
  • a detector configured to detect a fluorescent output signal emitted from the plurality of spin centres,
  • wherein the magnetometer is configured to integrate the fluorescent output signal over a signal averaging time and process the fluorescent output signal such that a standard deviation of the fluorescent output signal decreases with the square root of the signal averaging time over a time period which spans at least two orders of magnitude in the signal averaging time to achieve a standard deviation of less than 100 picotesla.

Claims

3-1. A magnetometer according to claim 1,

wherein the standard deviation of the fluorescent output signal decreases with the square root of the signal averaging time over a time period which spans at least four orders of magnitude in the signal averaging time.