Searching for an exotic spin-dependent interaction with a single electron-spin quantum sensor.

Rong, Xing; Wang, Mengqi; Geng, Jianpei; Qin, Xi; Guo, Maosen; Jiao, Man; Xie, Yijin; Wang, Pengfei et al. · Nat Commun · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Searching for new particles beyond the standard model is crucial for understanding several fundamental conundrums in physics and astrophysics. Several hypothetical particles can mediate exotic spin-dependent interactions between ordinary fermions, which enable laboratory searches via the detection of the interactions. Most laboratory searches utilize a macroscopic source and detector, thus allowing the detection of interactions with submillimeter force range and above. It remains a challenge to detect the interactions at shorter force ranges. Here we propose and demonstrate that a near-surface nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond can be utilized as a quantum sensor to detect the monopole-dipole interaction between an electron spin and nucleons. Our result sets a constraint for the electron-nucleon coupling, [Formula: see text], with the force range 0.1-23 μm. The obtained upper bound of the coupling at 20 μm is [Formula: see text] < 6.24 × 10<sup>-15</sup>.