Imaging crystal stress in diamond using ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy centers

We present a micrometer-scale-resolution stress imaging method with millimeter field-of-view for diamonds containing a thin surface layer of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. In this method, we reconstruct stress tensor elements over a two-dimensional field of view from NV optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) spectra. We use this technique to study how stress inhomogeneity affects NV magnetometry performance and show how NV M_z,κ imaging is a useful and direct way to assess these effects. This tool for mapping stress in diamond will aid optimization of NV-diamond sensing, with wide-ranging applications in the physical and life sciences.