Power sensitivity of broadband radiofrequency detectors based on quantum diamond spins
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2605.14244 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 14 May 2026] Title:Power sensitivity of broadband radiofrequency detectors based on quantum diamond spins Authors:Nicholas Gillespie, Christopher T.-K. Lew, Ryan Kinsella, Andy Sayers, Brant Gibson, David A. Broadway, Jean-Philippe Tetienne View a PDF of the paper titled Power sensitivity of broadband radiofrequency detectors based on quantum diamond spins, by Nicholas Gillespie and 6 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond can be used to detect radiofrequency (RF) signals through coupling of the RF magnetic field with the NV spins, combined with optical readout of the spin state. The sensitivity of such RF detectors has so far been mainly studied in terms of magnetic field sensitivity, which is relevant when the RF signal is generated by a near-field source. However, for applications where the RF input is delivered externally, a more relevant quantity is the sensitivity in terms of the input RF power. Here we theoretically analyse the power sensitivity of NV-based RF detectors as a function of the RF-spin interface geometry. We derive scaling laws of the power sensitivity for both slope-detection and variance-detection RF sensing protocols, and for various noise regimes. We find that, in most scenarios, the power sensitivity scales inversely with the characteristic physical dimension of the RF-spin interface, for instance the width of a coplanar waveguide or the diameter of a loop antenna. In other words, the smaller the structure and the probed NV volume, the better the power sensitivity, which is contrary to the case of magnetic field sensitivity. Lastly, we numerically estimate that photon shot noise limited sensitivities of 10^{-20} W Hz^{-1} (slope) and 10^{-12} W Hz^{-1/2} (variance) are achievable. This work lays the groundwork for further optimisation of NV-based RF detectors. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) Cite as: arXiv:2605.14244 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2605.14244v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.14244 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Christopher Lew [view email] [v1] Thu, 14 May 2026 01:22:00 UTC (4,387 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Power sensitivity of broadband radiofrequency detectors based on quantum diamond spins, by Nicholas Gillespie and 6 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-05 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.mes-hall References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)