Real-Time Magnetometry Using Dark States of a Nitrogen Vacancy Center

Abstract

We demonstrate real-time magnetometry by detecting fluorescence from a nitrogen vacancy center in the setting of coherent population trapping and by estimating magnetic field from the time series of the observed photon counts, which are correlated with the underlying field. The proof-of-principle experiment uses an external time-varying magnetic field that follows an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process. By taking into consideration the statistical properties of the OU process, a Bayesian inference-based estimator can effectively update dynamical information of the field in real time with the detection of just a single photon.