Spatial Manipulation of Fluorescent Colloidal Nanodiamonds for Applications in Quantum Sensing

Abstract

Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds are of current interest as quantum sensors, single photon sources, and biological nanomaterials due to their unique optical and spin properties, biocompatibility, and robust structure. Though NV center in diamonds demonstrates longer coherence time and has been used for more sensing and quantum operations compared to nanodiamonds (NDs), the prospect of selecting NDs with single, few, or multiple NV centers and moving the NDs to the location of interest makes NDs suitable for various applications, due to which there is a significant boost in the last decade to manipulate and position the NDs on the surface or to achieve dynamic control in the fluidic environment. This work covers some of the basics of the materials and optical properties of nanodiamonds and discusses the capabilities and challenges for practical applications, followed by a detailed review of the various static and dynamic manipulation methods of nanodiamonds in microfluidic environments (colloidal NDs).