Theoretical examination of 3-D imaging using NV-Centers in Fluorescent Nanodiamonds

The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center is a point defect in a diamond lattice where two adjacent carbon atoms are substituted by a nitrogen atom and a vacancy. In the presence of a negative charge, the spin configuration of this defect results in magnetic-field-dependent photoluminescence, turning the NV- center into an optical magnetic imager. The excellent imaging contrast of methods utilizing these NV- centers, even in the presence of strong background autofluorescence, makes them strong candidates for biological imaging. This work examines the theoretical limitations in leveraging the magneto-optical response of NV- centers for depth-resolution, which is a key step in performing 3-dimensional imaging. Findings will place upper-bounds on depth-resolution in static imaging applications.