Long-exposure Camera Readout for Coherent Control of Nitrogen-Vacancy Center Spins in Diamond

Abstract: Camera-based wide-field quantum noise spectroscopy (QNS) with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center spins in diamond can be used to extract DC and AC magnetic field noise with sub-micrometer spatial resolution, but its realization is currently limited by the conflict between the optimal optical spin readout time (normally below one microsecond) and the minimal camera exposure time (normally tens of microsecond). In the present article, we demonstrate fully coherent control of NV center spins via Rabi oscillation, Ramsey, Hahn echo and relaxometry experiments, i.e. the core of QNS, with a home-built camera-based setup, and achieve an unexpectedly high contrast of 12% with an optical spin readout time of 500 microseconds. We explain the absence of the above conflict in our system with the optical spin readout mechanism under weak laser illumination, where spin-lattice relaxation and weak optical pumping result in a rather slow reduction of contrast with increasing integration time. The revealed mechanism is instructive for the construction of the wide-field QNS with a sCMOS or EMCCD camera, and its application in the studies of magnetic material or superconducting material.