What is it about?
Some color centers in solids can be used as quantum sensors for precision measurements. We have generated an array of nanoscale quantum sensors at desired positions with a few nanometer precision in a van der Waals material (hexagonal boron nitride: hBN). By attaching our hBN quantum sensor nanoarray directly to a measurement target, we have succeeded in accurately imaging the magnetic field (~ 10 µT) with spatial resolution as high as ~ 0.1 µm using an optical microscope.
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Why is it important?
When measuring a stray magnetic field from a measurement target, the spatial resolution is limited by the sensor size and the sensor-target distance. Despite this severe constraint, we have achieved high spatial resolution by taking full advantage of the atomic-sized nature of individual hBN quantum sensors. We have rigorously proven that each nano-arranged quantum sensor in the array has the high magnetic field sensitivity. Such sensor nanoarrays will be important in magnetic material exploration, spintronics, MEMS, biomaterials, etc.
Perspectives
The hBN quantum sensors, discovered only recently, have unique advantages unlike the diamond quantum sensors; you can fabricate countless micro flakes from a tiny hBN crystal and stick them to measurement targets as much as you wish. I hope that in the near future, they will be widely used, like magnetic force microscopes, as dispensable quantum sensors.
Kento Sasaki
The University of Tokyo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Magnetic field imaging by hBN quantum sensor nanoarray, Applied Physics Letters, June 2023, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0147072.
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