Synchronized-readout for narrowband detection of time-varying electromagnetic fields using solid state spins

1. A system comprising:

a solid state electronic spin system, wherein the solid state electronic spin system has a spin-state dependent fluorescence;

a source of light;

a source of first external perturbation, wherein the source of first external perturbation generates a magnetic field;

a source of second external perturbation, wherein, the source of light and the first and second external perturbations are configured to coherently and independently manipulate the spin states of at least one solid state electronic spin system;

a digital timing generator configured to synchronize the light and the first and second perturbations; and

a detector to optically measure the solid-state electronic spins spin-state dependent fluorescence.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein, the solid state electronic spin system-is a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) spin in the high purity diamond lattice.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a source of third external perturbation comprising a radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field source or an electronic spin resonance (ESR) field source.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein, the source of second external perturbation is a microwave field source.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the detector is a CCD camera, or a photomultiplier, or a photodiode.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the solid state electronic spin system comprises a defect in a crystal, and wherein a sample to be measured is placed at least one of on a surface of the crystal or in proximity of the solid state electronic spin system.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital timing generator is configured to provide a sub-sequence of pulses of the light and the second perturbation designed to be selective for detecting oscillating magnetic signals near a central frequency, f.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the solid state spin systems spin-dependent fluorescence is changed due to the interaction with the sample.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the solid state spin systems spin-dependent fluorescence is changed due to the interaction with a sample.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the source of light radiation is an optically pumped laser.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the optically pumped laser has a wavelength of 532 nm (nanometer).

12. A method of measuring an oscillating magnetic field, comprising:

applying a first external perturbation field to a solid state electronic spin system having a spin-state dependent fluorescence, wherein the applying the first external perturbation field to the solid state electronic spin system comprises aligning the solid state electronic spin system with the first external perturbation field;

positioning a sample in proximity to the solid state electronic spin system, the comprising a source of oscillating magnetic fields;

obtaining a sequence of fluorescence intensity measurements by:

i) pulsing a light source to generate light to align spins of the solid state electronic spin system;

ii) pulsing a source of second external perturbation; and

iii) detecting fluorescence of the solid state electronic spin system; wherein steps i) and ii) in each iteration are synchronized using a digital timing generator; and

repeating steps i), ii) and iii) for a predetermined number of iterations.

13. The method of claim 12 , obtaining a sequence of fluorescent intensity measurements further comprises iv) pulsing a source of third external perturbation.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising applying a Fourier transform to the sequence of fluorescent intensity measurements that were recorded at equal time intervals during each iteration.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the solid state electronic spin system comprises a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) spin in a high purity diamond lattice.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the third external perturbation comprises a radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field source or an electronic spin resonance (ESR) field source.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the source of second external perturbation is a microwave field source.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the digital timing generator is configured to provide a sub-sequence of pulses of the light and the second perturbation designed to be selective for detecting oscillating magnetic signals near a central frequency, f.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the sub-sequence of pulses has a duration that is an integer multiple of 1/f.

20. The method of claim 12 , wherein the sample comprises a liquid sample having a volume between 10 to 100 pL (picoliter).