Quantifying Optical Response of Fluorescent Nanodiamonds to Magnetic Field

A magnetic field is a region around a magnet that induces a magnetic force. An well-established method to measure magnetic field strength is using a Hall probe, which uses the deflection of electron paths to produce voltage readouts in the presence of a magnetic field. However, Hall probes are macroscopic and not readily suitable for probing magnetic fields in microscopic samples. It has been shown that the fluorescent brightness of nanodiamonds with a certain type of defects can decrease as the magnetic field increases, making them appropriate for magnetic field sensing on the nanoscale. Toward this goal, here I employed single-particle tracking to quantify the fluorescent brightness of nanodiamonds over a range of applied magnetic fields. Findings will help establish the feasibility of using the magnetic-optical response of fluorescent nanodiamonds for precision position sensing at the nano-scale.