• Physique/Matière Condensée
  
• Physique/Physique Quantique
  
• Physique/Matière Condensée/Autre
  
• Physique/Physique/Biophysique
  

Spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are promising quantum systems for the design of flexible two-dimensional quantum sensing platforms. Here we rely on hBN crystals isotopically enriched with either $^{10}$B or $^{11}$B to investigate the isotope-dependent properties of a spin defect featuring a broadband photoluminescence signal in the near infrared. By analyzing the hyperfine structure of the spin defect while changing the boron isotope, we first unambiguously confirm that it corresponds to the negatively-charged boron-vacancy center (${\rm V}_{\rm B}^-$). We then show that its spin coherence properties are slightly improved in $^{10}$B-enriched samples. This is supported by numerical simulations employing cluster correlation expansion methods, which reveal the importance of the hyperfine Fermi contact term for calculating the coherence time of point defects in hBN. Using cross-relaxation spectroscopy, we finally identify dark electron spin impurities as an additional source of decoherence. This work provides new insights into the properties of ${\rm V}_{\rm B}^-$ spin defects, which are valuable for the future development of hBN-based quantum sensing foils.

The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond is an efficient quantum sensor of randomly fluctuating signalsvia relaxometry measurements. In particular, the longitudinal spin relaxation of the NV defect accelerates in thepresence of magnetic noise with a spectral component at its electron spin resonance frequency.We look into thiseffect quantitatively by applying a calibrated and tunable magnetic noise on a single NV defect.We show that anincrease of the longitudinal spin relaxation rate translates into a reduction of the photoluminescence (PL) signalemitted under continuous optical illumination, which can be explained using a simplified three-level model of theNV defect. This PL quenching mechanism offers a simple, all-optical method to detect magnetic noise sourcesat the nanoscale.

Antiferromagnetic materials are promising platforms for next-generation spintronics owing to their fast dynamics and high robustness against parasitic magnetic fields. However, nanoscale imaging of the magnetic order in such materials with zero net magnetization remains a major experimental challenge. Here we show that non-collinear antiferromagnetic spin textures can be imaged by probing the magnetic noise they locally produce via thermal populations of magnons. To this end, we perform nanoscale, all-optical relaxometry with a scanning quantum sensor based on a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond. Magnetic noise is detected through an increase of the spin relaxation rate of the NV defect, which results in an overall reduction of its photoluminescence signal under continuous laser illumination. As a proof-of-concept, the efficiency of the method is demonstrated by imaging various spin textures in synthetic antiferromagnets, including domain walls, spin spirals and antiferromagnetic skyrmions. This imaging procedure could be extended to a large class of intrinsic antiferromagnets and opens up new opportunities for studying the physics of localized spin wave modes for magnonics.

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds possess an electronic spin resonance that strongly depends on temperature, which makes them efficient temperature sensors with sensitivity down to a few mK/√Hz. However, the high thermal conductivity of the host diamond may strongly damp any temperature variations, leading to invasive measurements when probing local temperature distributions. In the view of determining possible and optimal con gurations for diamond-based wide- eld thermal imaging, here, we investigate both experimentally and numeri- cally the effect of the presence of diamonds on microscale temperature distributions. Three geometrical con gurations are studied: a bulk diamond substrate, a thin diamond layer bonded on quartz, and diamond nanoparticles dispersed on quartz. We show that the use of bulk diamond substrates for thermal imaging is highly invasive in the sense that it prevents any substantial temperature increase. Conversely, thin diamond layers partly solve this issue and could provide a possible alternative for microscale thermal imaging. Dispersions of diamond nanoparticles throughout the sample appear as the most relevant approach as they do not affect the temperature distribution, although NV centers in nanodiamonds yield lower temperature sensitivities than bulk diamonds.

Quantum sensing with diamond