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Vector magnetometry using cavity-enhanced microwave readout in nitrogen-vacancy-center diamond

Reginald Wilcox1,2,*, David Phillips2, Matthew Steinecker2, Erik Eisenach1,2, Corey Hawkins2, Linh Pham2, Jennifer Schloss2, Dirk Englund1, and Danielle Braje2

  • *Contact author: rwilcox@mit.edu

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 054039 – Published 15 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/wd4d-qf28

Abstract

We demonstrate 4π-steradian vector magnetic field sensing using an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) centers in a single-crystal diamond coupled to a microwave (MW) cavity. The MW cavity enhances the spin-photon coupling, which enables efficient, high-contrast spin-state readout via MW interrogation and removes the need for bulky optical collection components. A slowly varying sinusoidal bias magnetic field lifts the zero-field degeneracy of the four crystallographic N-V orientations, allowing each orientation to be individually addressed and used for vector reconstruction of the magnetic field. The resulting magnetometer has a 36% contrast (20 times higher than typical for optical spin-ensemble readout) and achieves a single-axis sensitivity of 250 pT/Hz that is flat from direct current to 1 kHz. Noise models of the composite spin-cavity system establish MW amplitude noise as the dominant noise source and predict a thermal-noise limit of 2 pT/Hz.

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