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NASA NTRS1995

Langley Research Center - Soluble Imide (LaRC-SI)

This report is about experimenting and developing uses for the new thermal plastic developed by Dr. Robert Bryant called the 'Langley Research Center - Soluble Imide' (LaRC-SI). The three developments are: the use of the LaRC-SI as a dielectric for thin film sensors, as an adhesive to place diamonds on surfaces to increase thermal conductivity, and as an intermediate layer to allow the placement of metal on aluminum nitride. The LaRC-SI was developed by Dr. Robert G. Bryant, a chemical engineer at NASA Langley Research Center. The unique properties of this material is that it is an amorphous thermoplastic. This means that it can be reformed at elevated temperature and pressures. It can be applied in the form of a spray, spin, dip coating, paint, or spread with a doctors blade. The LaRC-SI has excellent adhesive and dielectric properties. It can also be recycled. Potential applications for this material are resin for mechanical parts such as gears, bearings and valves, advanced composites like carbon fiber, high strength adhesives, thin film circuits, and as a dielectric film for placing electrical components on conductive materials.

Stang, David↗

DOE OSTI2020

Vector Electrometry in a Wide-Gap-Semiconductor Device Using a Spin-Ensemble Quantum Sensor

Nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) centers in diamond work as a quantum electrometer. Using an ensemble state of N-V centers, we propose vector electrometry and demonstrate measurements in a diamond electronic device. A transverse electric field applied to the N-V axis under a high voltage is measured, while applying a transverse magnetic field. The response of the energy-level shift against the electric field is significantly enhanced compared with that against an axial magnetic field. Repeating the measurement of the transverse electric field for multiple N-V axes, our team obtains the components of the electric field generated in the device.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2025

Subnanometer Thick Native sp 2 Carbon on Oxidized Diamond Surfaces

Oxygen-terminated diamond has a wide breadth of applications, which include stabilizing near-surface color centers, semiconductor devices, and biological sensors. Despite the vast literature on characterizing functionalization groups on diamond, the chemical composition of the shallowest portion of the surface (<1 nm) is challenging to probe with conventional techniques like XPS and FTIR. In this work, we demonstrate the use of angleresolved XPS to probe the first ten nanometers of both oxygen and hydrogen terminated (100) single-crystalline diamond grown via chemical vapor deposition (CVD). With the use of consistent peakfitting methods, the peak identities and relative peak binding energies were identified for sp 2 carbon, ether, hydroxyl, carbonyl, and C−H groups for both of these diamond surface terminations. For the oxygen-terminated sample, we also quantified the thickness of the sp 2 carbon layer situated on top of the bulk sp 3 diamond bonded carbon to be 0.3 ± 0.1 nm, based on the analysis of the Auger electron spectra and D-parameter calculations. These results indicate that the majority of the oxygen is bonded to the sp 2 carbon layer on the diamond, and not directly to the sp 3 diamond bonded carbon.

Carbon↗

DOE OSTI2023

X-ray quantification of oxygen groups on diamond surfaces for quantum applications

Abstract Identifying the surface chemistry of diamond materials is increasingly important for device applications, especially quantum sensors. Oxygen-related termination species are widely used because they are naturally abundant, chemically stable, and compatible with stable nitrogen vacancy centres near the diamond surface. Diamond surfaces host a mixture of oxygen-related species, and the precise chemistry and relative coverage of different species can lead to dramatically different electronic properties, with direct consequences for near-surface quantum sensors. However, it is challenging to unambiguously identify the different groups or quantify the relative surface coverage. Here we show that a combination of x-ray absorption and photoelectron spectroscopies can be used to quantitatively identify the coverage of carbonyl functional groups on the { 100 } diamond surface. Using this method we reveal an unexpectedly high fraction of carbonyl groups ( > 9%) on a wide range of sample surfaces. Furthermore, through a combination of ab initio calculations and spectroscopic studies of engineered surfaces, we reveal unexpected complexities in the x-ray spectroscopy of oxygen terminated diamond surfaces. Of particular note, we find the binding energies of carbonyl-related groups on diamond differs significantly from other organic systems, likely resulting in previous misestimation of carbonyl fractions on diamond surfaces.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2023

Hunting Sub-GeV Dark Matter with Diamonds and Magnetic Microcalorimeters Principle

This project is to study feasibility of a new concept for the sub-GeV dark matter (DM) detection using diamond crystals and magnetic microcalorimeters (MMCs). Diamond crystals are made of low mass carbon constituent that maximize kinetic energy of nuclear recoils from sub-GeV DM scattering due to their relatively similar masses. MMC is employed as a sensitive phonon sensor to measure athermal phonons that are produced by DM scattering in diamond crystals with 100 ns timing resolution and ~10 eV energy resolution. MMC’s fast timing resolution allows high precision phonon pulse shape analysis to separate out unwanted background or noise signals in the low energy region at E < 1 keV. Especially, the low energy excess (LEE) problems have been reported in the dark matter detection community and the proposed diamond-MMC detector might be able to provide important information to understand the origins of LEE signals in DM detectors. In this project a diamond-MMC detector has been built for proof-of-concept experiments and athermal phonon collection efficiencies have been investigated for single crystal and poly-crystal chemical-vapour-diamonds (SC and PC CVDs) as well as reference sapphire crystals are tested in the same geometries to quatify athermal phonon propagation and their collection to the MMC phonon sensors. Athermal phonon collection efficiencies and their lifetime in the diamond and sapphire crystals are successfully measured in the same geometry and experimental setup for comparison. SC CVD crystals exhibit poorer performance than the sapphire reference crystals in athermal phonon collection, while the PC CVD crystal exhibit better result than the sapphire. PC CVD with MMC phonon sensors would be feasible for sub GeV DM detection.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Preparation of metrological states in dipolar-interacting spin systems

Abstract Spin systems are an attractive candidate for quantum-enhanced metrology. Here we develop a variational method to generate metrological states in small dipolar-interacting spin ensembles with limited qubit control. For both regular and disordered spatial spin configurations the generated states enable sensing beyond the standard quantum limit (SQL) and, for small spin numbers, approach the Heisenberg limit (HL). Depending on the circuit depth and the level of readout noise, the resulting states resemble Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states or Spin Squeezed States (SSS). Sensing beyond the SQL holds in the presence of finite spin polarization and a non-Markovian noise environment. The developed black-box optimization techniques for small spin numbers ( N ≤ 10) are directly applicable to diamond-based nanoscale field sensing, where the sensor size limits N and conventional squeezing approaches fail.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2025

Multi-qubit nanoscale sensing with entanglement as a resource

Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centres in diamond are widely deployed as local magnetic sensors, using single-qubit control to measure both time-averaged fields and noise with nanoscale spatial resolution. Moving beyond single qubits to multi-qubit control enables new sensing modalities such as measuring nonlocal spatiotemporal correlators or using entangled states to enhance measurement sensitivity. Here, in this work, we describe protocols for using optically unresolved NV centre pairs and nuclear spins as multi-qubit sensors for measuring correlated noise at nanometre length scales. For noninteracting NV centres, we implement a phase-cycling protocol that disambiguates magnetic correlations from variance fluctuations, leveraging the presence of a third qubit, a 13 C nucleus, to effect coherent single-NV spin flips and enable phase cycling even for co-aligned NV centres that are spectrally unresolved. For length scales around 10 nm, we create maximally entangled Bell states through dipole–dipole coupling between two NV centres and use these entangled states to directly read out the magnetic field correlation, rather than reconstructing it from independent measurements of unentangled NV centres. Importantly, this changes the scaling of sensitivity with readout noise from quadratic to linear. For conventional off-resonant readout of the NV centre spin state (for which the readout noise is roughly 30 times the quantum projection limit), this results in more than an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity. Finally, we demonstrate methods for detecting high spatial- and temporal-resolution correlators with pairs of strongly interacting NV centres.

condensed-matter physics↗

DOE OSTI2022

Local Ferromagnetic Resonance Measurements of Mesoscopically Patterned Ferromagnets Using Deterministically Placed Nanodiamonds

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond have recently been established as effective sensors of the magnetization dynamics in vicinal ferromagnetic materials. Here, we demonstrate sub-100-nm placement accuracy of nitrogen-vacancy-containing nanodiamonds and use these as local sensors that probe optically detected ferromagnetic resonance in mesoscopically patterned Permalloy islands. These measurements reveal variations in the ferromagnetic resonance signal at different sites on these structures with distinct behavior in the edge and the bulk of patterned features. These test measurements establish an easily implemented approach for spatially targeted measurements of spin dynamics in mesoscale ferromagnets. In principle, the methodology can also be extended to local studies of nanoscale ferromagnets, such as single magnetic nanowires and nanoparticles.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

DOE OSTI2022

Novel Sensors for Particle Tracking: a Contribution to the Snowmass Community Planning Exercise of 2021

Five contemporary technologies are discussed in the context of their potential roles in particle tracking for future high energy physics applications. These include sensors of the 3D configuration, in both diamond and silicon, submicron-dimension pixels, thin film detectors, and scintillating quantum dots in gallium arsenide. Drivers of the technologies include radiation hardness, excellent position, vertex, and timing resolution, simplified integration, and optimized power, cost, and material.

Detectors↗

DOE OSTI2022

Novel Sensors for Particle Tracking: a Contribution to the Snowmass Community Planning Exercise of 2021

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2025

Signal amplification in a solid-state sensor through asymmetric many-body echo

Electronic spins of nitrogen–vacancy centres in diamond constitute a promising system for micro- and nanoscale magnetic sensing, because of their operation under ambient conditions, ease of placement in close proximity to sensing targets and biological compatibility. At high densities, the electronic spins interact through dipolar coupling, which typically limits but can also potentially enhance sensing performance. Here we report the experimental demonstration of many-body signal amplification in a solid-state, room-temperature quantum sensor. Our approach uses time-reversed two-axis-twisting interactions, engineered through dynamical control of the quantization axis and Floquet engineering in a two-dimensional ensemble of nitrogen–vacancy centres. We observe that optimal amplification occurs when the backward evolution time equals twice the forward evolution time, in sharp contrast to the conventional Loschmidt echo. These observations can be understood as resulting from an underlying time-reversed mirror symmetry of the microscopic dynamics, providing key insights into signal amplification and opportunities for practical entanglement-enhanced quantum sensing.

quantum information↗

DOE OSTI2020

Effects of trapped charge on the signal formation and detection efficiency for subsequent pulses in irradiated silicon sensors

Envisaged high energy physics experiments like the Future Circular Collider require unprecedented radiation hardness of the detectors, as well as short readout time due to high luminosity and occupancy. Silicon has proven to be extremely radiation hard. Sufficient signals can be recorded even at fluences close to 1 ∙ 1 0 16 n e q / cm 2 . Here, the signal formation was studied in silicon strip sensors, irradiated and annealed until the phenomenon of charge multiplication occurred. ATLAS12EC R0 mini sensors were tested by means of edge TCT measurements at temperatures around –20 °C. It was observed that the detection of subsequent signals separated up to several microseconds is altered by the charge trapped during the preceding pulses. The effects of trapped charge on the electrical configuration of a sensor are well known as a polarization or pumping effect in larger band-gap materials like diamond, but is often neglected for silicon at this relatively high temperature. The investigation of the effect created by trapped charges in silicon sensors using subsequent pulses allows to gain information on important parameters such as de-trapping times. Furthermore, it shows a severe impact on the sensor performance in a pile-up scenario. The irradiation fluence and hence the effective doping concentration, the temperature and the amount of initially created charge have a large impact on this phenomenon. The measurements presented help to characterize this phenomenon; particular attention was paid to the application point of view.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2024

Unraveling sources of emission heterogeneity in Silicon Vacancy color centers with cryo-cathodoluminescence microscopy

Diamond color centers have proven to be versatile quantum emitters and exquisite sensors of stress, temperature, electric and magnetic fields, and biochemical processes. Among color centers, the silicon-vacancy (SiV - ) defect exhibits high brightness, minimal phonon coupling, narrow optical linewidths, and high degrees of photon indistinguishability. Yet the creation of reliable and scalable SiV - -based color centers has been hampered by heterogeneous emission, theorized to originate from surface imperfections, crystal lattice strain, defect symmetry, or other lattice impurities. Here, we advance high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy combined with cathodolumines cence spectroscopy and 4D scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to elucidate the structural sources of heterogeneity in SiV - emission from nanodiamond with sub-nanometer-scale resolution. Our diamond nanoparticles are grown directly on TEM membranes from molecular-level seedings, representing the natural formation conditions of color centers in diamond. We show that individual subcrystallites within a single nanodiamond exhibit distinct zero-phonon line (ZPL) energies and differences in brightness that can vary by 0.1 meV in energy and over 70% in brightness. These changes are correlated with the atomic-scale lattice structure. We find that ZPL blue shifts result from tensile strain, while ZPL red shifts are due to compressive strain. We also find that distinct crystallites host distinct densities of SiV - emitters and that grain boundaries impact SiV - emission significantly. Finally, we interrogate nanodiamonds as small as 40 nm in diameter and show that these diamonds exhibit no spatial change to their ZPL energy. Our work provides a foundation for atomic-scale structure-emission correlation, e.g., of single atomic defects in a range of quantum and two-dimensional materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2023

All-optical, Microwave-free NV-Diamond Magnetometer for High Magnetic Field Environment

Nitrogen vacancy (NV) magnetometry has commonly utilized microwave sources to manipulate the sensor's spin state. However, this technique becomes technically challenging under an environment with a Tesla-scale magnetic field or extreme conditions that prohibit the usage of microwave. By leveraging the effect that an off-axis magnetic field to the NV axis quenches its emitted photoluminescence, we present an all-optical, microwave-free broadband quantum diamond magnetometer. We demonstrate magnetic sensing over an extended bias magnetic field range — beyond the ground-state level anti-crossing (GSLAC) region — with a more integrated design.

Zheng, Xiechen↗

NASA NTRS1974

Study of the use of Metal-Oxide-Silicon (MOS) devices for particulate detection and monitoring in the earth's atmosphere

A metal-oxide-silicon (MOS) capacitor-type particulate sensor was evaluated for use in atmospheric measurements. An accelerator system was designed and tested for the purpose of providing the necessary energy to trigger the MOS-type sensor. The accelerator system and the MOS sensor were characterized as a function of particle size and velocity. Diamond particles were used as particulate sources in laboratory tests. Preliminary tests were performed in which the detector was mounted on an aircraft and flown in the vicinity of coal-fired electric generating plants.

Brooks, A. D.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Pioneer Venus small probes net flux radiometer experiment

The University of Wisconsin net flux experiment on the Pioneer Venus mission investigated the distribution of radiative energy deposition and loss which drives atmospheric circulation on Venus. The instrument used an external sensor and a novel method of chopping to measure the net flux of solar and planetary radiation during descent through the thick Venus atmosphere. The sensor, consisting of a high temperature flux plate detector and protective diamond windows, was designed to make accurate flux measurements while exposed to the severe Venus environment.

Sromovsky, L. A.↗

DOE OSTI2026

Microwave-photonic control of optically accessible spin defects in diamond

A growing variety of optically accessible spin qubits have emerged in recent years as key components for quantum sensors, computers, and memories. However, the scalability of conventional spin-based quantum architectures remains limited by direct microwave delivery, which introduces thermal noise, electromagnetic crosstalk, and design constraints for cryogenic, high-field, and distributed systems. In this work, we present a unified framework for RF-over-fiber (RFoF) control of spins accessible through optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) spectroscopy of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. The RFoF platform relies on an intensity-modulated 1310 nm laser carrying microwave signals over fiber and a high-speed photodiode for optical-to-electrical conversion to drive NV spin transitions. We report an RFoF power-conversion efficiency of 3.42% for an RF output PRF,out=-5.5 dBm at 2.87 GHz, enabling clear resolution of Zeeman splitting in

Rahman, M Reefaz [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000323541611)↗

DOE OSTI2020

Design and performance of silicon strip sensors with slim edges for HPS experiment

In this paper, we report on design and performance of new strip sensors for the Heavy Photon Search (HPS) experiment. The sensors feature a slim edge implementation using the Scribe–Cleave–Passivate (SCP) method. The slim edge design has allowed the introduction of a new layer closer to the target, which increased the tracking acceptance and vertex precision, improving physics reach of the experiment. We describe the production, testing, and operational experience with the new sensors.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗