A convenient and robust design for diamond-based scanning probe microscopes

Abstract

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond have been developed as a sensitive magnetic sensor and broadly applied on condensed matter physics. We present a design of a scanning probe microscope based on a nitrogen-vacancy center that can operate under various experimental conditions, including a broad temperature range (20–500 K) and a high-vacuum condition (1 × 10−7 mbar). The design of a compact and robust scanning head and vacuum chamber system is presented, which ensures system stability while enabling the convenience of equipment operations. By showcasing the temperature control performance and presenting confocal images of a single-layer graphene and a diamond probe, along with images of a ferromagnetic strip and an epitaxial BiFeO3 film on the SrTiO3 substrate, we demonstrate the reliability of the instrument. Our study proposes a method and a corresponding design for this microscope that extends its potential applications in nanomagnetism and spintronics.