- Accepted Paper
Double-quantum-enhanced coherent control and magnetic sensing of spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride
Phys. Rev. Applied - Accepted 9 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/hmk5-d2dj
Phys. Rev. Applied - Accepted 9 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/hmk5-d2dj
The negatively charged boron vacancy () in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is a promising spin defect for quantum sensing in two-dimensional material systems. Previous hBN experiments have mainly exploited the two spin-triplet ground-state single-quantum transitions separately. Here we implement a double-quantum driving scheme based on simultaneous resonant microwave excitation of both ground-state single-quantum transitions, establishing coherent control of the manifold in a ensemble. We compare the resulting double-quantum response with the corresponding single-quantum protocol under identical experimental conditions. The double-quantum protocol enhances the optical readout contrast and yields a 2.6-fold signal-to-noise improvement in AC magnetometry. We further use the double-quantum relaxation channel as a differential probe of electric-field and strain noise, showing that the present data are compatible with correlated-surface or volume-distributed fluctuations, while short-range uncorrelated surface-noise models are disfavored within the assumptions of our analysis. These results establish double-quantum coherent control and frequency-resolved AC magnetometry in hBN spin ensembles, and identify the sample-dependent measurements needed to determine the microscopic origin of the dominant relaxation channels.
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