English

Widefield Quantum Sensor for Vector Magnetic Field Imaging of Micromagnetic Structures

Quantum Physics 2025-12-04 v1 Other Condensed Matter

Abstract

Many spintronic, magnetic-memory, and neuromorphic devices rely on spatially varying magnetic fields. Quantitatively imaging these fields with full vector information over extended areas remains a major challenge. Existing probes either offer nanoscale resolution at the cost of slow scanning, or widefield imaging with limited vector sensitivity or material constraints. Quantum sensing with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond promises to bridge this gap, but a practical camera-based vector magnetometry implementation on relevant microstructures has not been demonstrated. Here we adapt a commercial widefield microscope to implement a camera-compatible pulsed optically detected magnetic resonance protocol to reconstruct stray-field vectors from microscale devices. By resolving the Zeeman shifts of the four NV orientations, we reconstruct the stray-field vector generated by microfabricated permalloy structures that host multiple stable remanent states. Our implementation achieves a spatial resolution of 0.52 μm\approx 0.52 ~\mu\mathrm{m} across an 83 μm×83 μm83~\mu\mathrm{m} \times 83~\mu\mathrm{m} field of view and a peak sensitivity of (828±142) nTHz1 (828 \pm 142)~\mathrm{nT\,Hz^{-1}}, with acquisition times of only a few minutes. These results establish pulsed widefield NV magnetometry on standard microscopes as a practical and scalable tool for routine vector-resolved imaging of complex magnetic devices.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.03748,
  title  = {Widefield Quantum Sensor for Vector Magnetic Field Imaging of Micromagnetic Structures},
  author = {Orlando D. Cunha and Filipe Camarneiro and João P. Silva and Hariharan Nhalil and Ariel Zaig and Lior Klein and Jana B. Nieder},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.03748},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

9 pages, 5 figures, original article

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:07:37.978Z