Wide-field strain imaging with preferentially aligned nitrogen-vacancy centers in polycrystalline diamond

Abstract

Wereport on wide-field optically detected magnetic resonance imaging of nitrogen-vacancy centers (NVs) in type IIa polycrystalline diamond. These studies reveal a heterogeneous crystalline environment that produces a varied density ofNVcenters, including preferential orientation within some individual crystal grains, but preserves long spin coherence times. Using the native NVs as nanoscale sensors, we introduce a three-dimensional strain imaging technique with high sensitivity (<10-5 Hz1/2) and diffraction-limited resolution across a wide field of view.