Temperature dependence of the longitudinal spin relaxation time <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msub><mml:mi>T</mml:mi><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math> of single nitrogen-vacancy centers in nanodiamonds
Timothée de Guillebon, Baptiste Vindolet, Jean-François Roch, V. Jacques, Loïc Rondin
Abstract
We report the experimental study of the temperature dependence of the longitudinal spin relaxation time ${T}_{1}$ of single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers hosted in nanodiamonds. To determine the relaxation mechanisms at stake, measurements of the ${T}_{1}$ relaxation time are performed for a set of individual NV centers both at room and cryogenic temperatures. The results are consistant with a temperature-dependent relaxation process, which is attributed to a thermally activated magnetic noise produced by paramagnetic impurities lying on the nanodiamond surface. These results confirm the existence of surface-induced spin relaxation processes occurring in nanodiamonds, which are relevant for future developments of sensitive nanoscale NV-based quantum sensors.