{"id":516226,"date":"2025-10-21T05:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T05:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/516226\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T05:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T05:36:11","slug":"diamond-probe-measures-ultrafast-electric-fields-with-femtosecond-precision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/516226\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamond probe measures ultrafast electric fields with femtosecond precision"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Successful<\/p>\n

Concept of the electro-optic nanoscopy. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038\/s41467-025-63936-8<\/p>\n

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have successfully measured electric fields near the surfaces of two-dimensional layered materials with femtosecond temporal and nanometer spatial resolution. They employed a diamond containing a nitrogen-vacancy center\u2014a lattice defect\u2014as a probe within an atomic force microscope, enabling atomic-scale spatial precision.<\/p>\n

When nitrogen is incorporated as an impurity in a diamond crystal<\/a>, the absence of a neighboring carbon atom forms a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center. Applying an electric field<\/a> to diamond containing NV centers modifies its refractive index<\/a>, a phenomenon known as the electro-optic (EO) effect. Notably, this effect has not been observed in pure diamond alone.<\/p>\n

In previous work, the research team used a femtosecond laser<\/a> to detect lattice vibrations in diamond with high sensitivity by measuring the EO effect in high-purity diamond containing NV centers. These results demonstrated that diamond can act as an ultrafast EO crystal and serve as a probe\u2014termed a diamond NV probe\u2014for measuring electric fields.<\/p>\n

\"Successful<\/p>\n

The fabrication of the diamond NV probe. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038\/s41467-025-63936-8<\/p>\n

For the new study, published<\/a> in Nature Communications, the researchers combined the ultrafast EO effect of diamond NV centers with atomic force microscopy to develop a spatiotemporal microscope capable of measuring local electric field dynamics with femtosecond temporal and nanometer spatial resolution.<\/p>\n

Using this approach, they successfully detected electric fields near the surface of a tungsten diselenide (WSe\u2082) sample\u2014a two-dimensional layered material\u2014with temporal and spatial resolutions better than 100 fs and 500 nm.<\/p>\n

Due to the NV center’s sensitivity to spin states and thermal fluctuations, this diamond-based probe holds potential not only for electric field detection but also for nanoscale magnetic and thermal sensing.<\/p>\n

More information:<\/strong>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDaisuke Sato et al, An ultrafast diamond nonlinear photonic sensor, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038\/s41467-025-63936-8<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProvided by
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUniversity of Tsukuba<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCitation<\/strong>:
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDiamond probe measures ultrafast electric fields with femtosecond precision (2025, October 20)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tretrieved 21 October 2025
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-10-diamond-probe-ultrafast-electric-fields.html\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concept of the electro-optic nanoscopy. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038\/s41467-025-63936-8 Researchers at University of Tsukuba have successfully…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3845],"tags":[75,76,74,71,70,72,53,73,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-516226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-materials","9":"tag-nanotech","10":"tag-physics","11":"tag-physics-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-science-news","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-technology-news","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115410540493746956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}