Sensor comprising a piezomagnetic or piezoelectric element on a diamond substrate with a colour centre

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10107874-B2
Application number	US-201415304320-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 16, 2014
Priority date	Apr 16, 2014
Publication date	Oct 23, 2018
Grant date	Oct 23, 2018

Abstract

A sensor ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ) comprising a first diamond substrate ( 9 ) with at least one color center ( 15 ), the sensor ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ) further comprising a first piezomagnetic ( 10 ) or piezoelectric primary element ( 11 ), which primary element ( 10, 11 ) is arranged to interact with the color center(s) ( 15 ) of the first diamond substrate ( 9 ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sensor comprising a first diamond substrate with at least one colour centre, wherein the sensor further comprises a first piezomagnetic or piezoelectric primary element, which primary element is arranged to interact with the colour centre(s) of the first diamond substrate solely by means of either a stray electric field or stray magnetic field produced by the primary element.

2. The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises several diamond substrates, each substrate comprising at least one colour centre.

3. The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises several primary piezomagnetic or piezoelectric elements arranged to interact with colour centre(s) of the diamond substrate(s).

4. The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein the colour centre(s) is/are nitrogen vacancy centre(s).

5. The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein the primary piezomagnetic or piezoelectric element(s) is/are arranged to interact with the colour centre(s) of the substrate(s) magnetically or electrically.

6. The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein the primary element(s) is/are piezomagnetic element(s) comprising a solid ferrite material.

7. The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein at least part of the first primary element extends as a layer across at least part of a surface of the first diamond substrate.

8. The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor further comprises a first secondary element which is arranged to interact with the first piezomagnetic or piezoelectric primary element.

9. The sensor according to claim 8 , wherein the sensor comprises several secondary elements, each arranged to interact with the primary element(s).

10. The sensor according to claim 8 , wherein the first secondary element forms an island in or on the first primary element.

11. The sensor according to claim 8 , wherein the secondary element(s) is/are piezoelectric.

12. The sensor according to claim 8 , wherein the secondary element(s) is/are thermally sensitive.

13. A method in which a change in a first piezomagnetic or piezoelectric primary element is detected by means of detecting a corresponding change in at least one colour centre of a first diamond substrate, which colour centre(s) interact with the first primary element solely by means of either a stray electric field or stray magnetic field produced by the first primary element.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the change in at least one colour centre is a change in an electric spin of the colour centre(s).

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the method involves optical detection of the magnetic resonance of the colour centre(s).

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the electric spin is polarized by means of optical pumping.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the change in the colour centre(s) detected is the chance in the colour centre(s)′ fluorescence.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the spins are measured with a pulse sensing scheme which is achieved by a microwave field.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the colour centre(s) are exposed to a microwave field.

20. The method of claim 13 , wherein the change in a first piezomagnetic or piezoelectric primary element is induced by a force or a change in a force applied to the first piezomagnetic or piezoelectric primary element.

Assignees

• Element Six Tech Ltd

Inventors

• Jelezko Fedor
• Cai Jianming
• Plenio Martin

Classifications

• G01R33/0322

  using the Faraday or Voigt effect · CPC title

• G01K5/72

  with electric transmission means for final indication · CPC title

• G01N24/10 Primary

  by using electron paramagnetic resonance (G01N24/12 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01R33/26

  using optical pumping · CPC title

• G01R33/0327

  with application of magnetostriction · CPC title