Scanning nitrogen-vacancy center magnetometry in large in-plane magnetic fields

Abstract

Scanning magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond has emerged as a powerful microscopy for studying weak stray field patterns with nanometer resolution. Due to the internal crystal anisotropy of the spin defect, however, external bias fields -- critical for the study of magnetic materials -- must be applied along specific spatial directions. In particular, the most common diamond probes made from {100}-cut diamond only support fields at an angle of $\theta = 55^\circ$ from the surface normal. In this paper, we report fabrication of scanning diamond probes from {110}-cut diamond where the spin anisotropy axis lies in the scan plane ($\theta=90^\circ$). We show that these probes retain their sensitivity in large in-plane fields and demonstrate scanning magnetometry of the domain pattern of Co-NiO films in applied fields up to 40 mT. Our work extends scanning NV magnetometry to the important class of materials that require large in-plane fields.