Optical polarization of nuclear ensembles in diamond

Abstract: We report polarization of a dense nuclear-spin ensemble in diamond and its dependence on magnetic field and temperature. The polarization method is based on the transfer of electron spin polarization of negatively charged nitrogen vacancy color centers to the nuclear spins via the excited-state level anti-crossing of the center. We polarize 90% of the 14N nuclear spins within the NV centers, and 70% of the proximal 13C nuclear spins with hyperfine interaction strength of 13-14 MHz. Magnetic-field dependence of the polarization reveals sharp decrease in polarization at specific field values corresponding to cross-relaxation with substitutional nitrogen centers, while temperature dependence of the polarization reveals that high polarization persists down to 50 K. This work enables polarization of the 13C in bulk diamond, which is of interest in applications of nuclear magnetic resonance, in quantum memories of hybrid quantum devices, and in sensing.