Optical control of charge environments in nanodiamonds for enhanced quantum sensing stability
Phys. Rev. A 113, 053725 – Published 26 May, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/v5z7-s2wl
Abstract
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamonds are promising platforms for nanoscale quantum sensing in biological and condensed-matter environments, but their performance is often limited by charge-state instability and strain-induced spectral fluctuations. Using spin-state-dependent emission measurements, we demonstrate that controlled optical excitation can stabilize the local charge environment surrounding the NV centers in nanodiamonds, thereby improving sensing stability. We observe that spin-state-dependent spectral emission linewidth and splitting saturate as a function of excitation laser power density, which correlates with a reduction in charge fluctuations across nanodiamonds with varied sizes and impurity concentrations. To elucidate these measurements, we develop a macroscopic theoretical model that reproduces the ensemble-averaged response of large NV populations without requiring explicit simulation of microscopic charge dynamics. Furthermore, we introduce incoherent sensing protocols that exploit environmental noise to achieve sensitivity of , even in regimes of strong spin decoherence. These results provide a practical route to enhancing the robustness of NV-based quantum sensors and an optically addressable platform for physically unclonable imaging tags relevant to quantum security and anticounterfeiting applications.