Researchers develop new method to control nanoscale diamond sensors

Technique allows tiny sensors to monitor small changes in magnetic fields, such as when neurons transmit electrical signals. Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but they could also one day help us understand how the brain processes information, thanks to a new sensing technique developed at MIT. A team in MIT's Quantum Engineering Group has developed a new method to control nanoscale diamond sensors, which are capable of measuring even very weak magnetic fields. The researchers present their work this week . The new control technique allows the tiny sensors to monitor how these magnetic fields change over time, such as when neurons in the brain transmit electrical signals to each other. It could also enable researchers to more precisely measure the magnetic fields produced by novel materials such as the metamaterials used to make superlenses and "invisibility cloaks." In 2008 a team of researchers from MIT, Harvard University, and other institutions first revealed that nanoscale defects inside diamonds could be used as magnetic sensors. The naturally occurring defects, known as nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) centers, are sensitive to external magnetic fields, much like compasses, says Paola Cappellaro, the Esther and Harold Edgerton Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) at MIT.