Nitrogen Vacancy Centers

Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) centers are defects in diamond crystals where a nitrogen atom replaces a carbon atom, and an adjacent vacancy (missing carbon) exists. These centers have unique quantum properties, making them useful for applications like high-precision sensing and quantum computing. The NV center's electrons can be manipulated and read out using light and magnetic fields, enabling detection of very small signals, such as magnetic fields from single molecules. Essentially, NV centers are tiny, controllable quantum sensors embedded in diamond, combining robustness with sophisticated measurement capabilities.