Low-cost ODMR experiments with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds: a didactical approach to theory and experiment

Abstract

In recent years, nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond have attracted much interest as tools for magnetic field sensing and imaging. Parallel to this progress in science, also in science education, huge advancements are seen, which might even be called an educational quantum revolution, which just has started to emerge.

In this article, we present an experimental setup for optically detectable magnetic resonance (ODMR) in micro-diamonds with nitrogen-vacancy centers (NV centers) which extends the recent work presented in Stegemann et al. (Eur J Phys. 44(3):035402, 2023) in view of better accessibility both from a technical perspective and from an didactical perspective. We improved the mechanical setup, and in particular the output of the measured values, which is now carried out by a microcontroller and is directly accessible to digital devices instead of the need of an oscilloscope. In this way, we increase the accessibility of the experimental setup for learners. Concerning modeling of the theoretical foundations, we discuss the importance of symmetries of the wave function for understanding quantum physics and introduce visualizations for the spin and orbit part of the wave function. Furthermore, we present first empirical data (\(N = 53\)), indicating possible paths for successful dissemination of the experiments to educators.