Hybrid diamond quantum sensor with submicrokelvin resolution under ambient conditions

Nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) centers in diamond are promising quantum sensors due to their ultralong coherence time under ambient conditions and multimodal sensing capability. N-V centers are strongly coupled to magnetic fields, leading to unprecedented sensitivity in magnetic field sensing. However, the coupling strengths between N-V centers and other crucial parameters, such as temperature and pressure, are not as strong as that of the magnetic field, resulting in a relative low sensitivity. A previous study showed that the temperature sensitivity of a diamond quantum sensor could be largely improved by magnetic criticality enhancement. Here, we propose and demonstrate a hybrid quantum thermometer composed of bulk diamond with ensemble N-V centers and a gadolinium magnetic flux concentrator. In addition to the magnetic criticality enhancement of gadolinium, our scheme leverages the magnetic flux concentration and ensemble N-V centers, achieving a temperature sensitivity of about 0.25em0ex251.50.25em0exnK/√Hz. Near the critical point, the spin resonance to temperature (∂f_±/∂T) reached 57.30.25em0exMHz/K under an external magnetic field of 1.213 G, which is about 774 times enhanced compared with that of bare N-V centers. The submicrokelvin temperature resolution of our hybrid thermometer can be used in the calibration of a reference point of temperature, integrated marine environmental surveys, laser-frequency stabilization, aerospace high-stability temperature-control systems, and many other practical applications on a macroscopic scale.