Scanning nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry down to 350 mK

Abstract

We report on the implementation of a scanning nitrogen-vacancy (NV) magnetometer in a dry dilution refrigerator. Using pulsed optically detected magnetic resonance combined with efficient microwave delivery through a co-planar waveguide, we reach a base temperature of 350 mK, limited by experimental heat load and thermalization of the probe. We demonstrate scanning NV magnetometry by imaging superconducting vortices in a 50-nm-thin aluminum microstructure. The sensitivity of our measurements is approximately 3  μT per square root Hz. Our work demonstrates the feasibility for performing noninvasive magnetic field imaging with scanning NV centers at sub-Kelvin temperatures.