High dynamic-range and portable magnetometer using ensemble nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond

Abstract: Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds have been explored for realizing a wide range of sensing applications in the last decade due to their unique quantum properties. Here we realize a compact and portable magnetometer with an ensemble of NV centers which we call the Quantum MagPI (Quantum Magnetometer with Proportional Integral control). Including the sensor head and associated electronics, our sensor assembly can fit inside 10 cm x 10 cm x 7 cm box and control electronics in 30 cm x 25 cm x 5 cm box. We achieve a bandwidth normalized sensitivity of ~ 10 nT/sqrt(Hz). Using closed-loop feedback for locking to the resonance frequency, we extend the linear dynamic range to 200 microT (20x improvement compared to the intrinsic dynamic range) without compromising the sensitivity. We report a detailed performance analysis of the magnetometer through measurements of noise spectra, Allan deviation, and tracking of nT-level magnetic fields in real-time. Additionally, we demonstrate the utility of such a magnetometer by real-time tracking the movement of the elevator car and door opening by measuring the projection of the magnetic field along one of the NV-axes under ambient temperature and humidity.