Detection of electron spin resonance of a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond using the excited-state lifetime

We demonstrated a high precision lifetime-based magnetometry with a single NV center in the bulk diamond. The magnetometry precision in long-time measurements under this scheme outperformed that in the conventional intensity-based method, showing precision robustness neglecting the accumulation of technical noises such as sample drifts or laser power fluctuations. A magnetic field sensitivity of 7.8 μT Hz^−1/2 with a single NV center was achieved, which is 13 times improvement of previously demonstrated lifetime-based magnetometry with π-pulses. In addition, the lifetime-based electron spin detection method provides time-resolved spin dynamic information, can be further combined with recently reported continuous measurement protocols towards higher precision.