Magnetic Imaging with Spin Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Pawan Kumar (1) , Florentin Fabre (1) , Alrik Durand (1) , T. Clua-Provost , J. Li , J. H. Edgar , N. Rougemaille , J. Coraux , X. Marie , P. Renucci , C. Robert , Isabelle Robert-Philip (1) , Bernard Gil (1) , Guillaume Cassabois (1) , Aurore Finco (1) , Vincent Jacques (1)

1 L2C - Laboratoire Charles Coulomb

Optically active spin defects hosted in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) are promising candidates for the development of a two-dimensional (2D) quantum sensing unit. Here, we demonstrate quantitative magnetic imaging with h-BN flakes doped with negatively charged boron-vacancy (VB-) centers through neutron irradiation. As a proof-of-concept, we image the magnetic field produced by CrTe2 , a van der Waals ferromagnet with a Curie temperature slightly above 300 K. Compared to other quantum sensors embedded in 3D materials, the advantages of the h-BN-based magnetic sensor described in this work are its ease of use, high flexibility, and, more importantly, its ability to be placed in close proximity to a target sample. Such a sensing unit will likely find numerous applications in 2D materials research by offering a simple way to probe the physics of van der Waals heterostructures.

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]; Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Pawan Kumar, Florentin Fabre, Alrik Durand, T. Clua-Provost, J. Li, et al.. Magnetic Imaging with Spin Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride. Physical Review Applied, 2022, 18 (6), pp.L061002. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevApplied.18.L061002⟩. ⟨hal-03951311⟩