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Abstract
The electronic spin of the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond forms an atomically
sized, highly sensitive sensor for magnetic fields. To harness the full potential
of individual NV centers for sensing with high sensitivity and nanoscale spatial resolution,
NV centers have to be incorporated into scanning probe structures enabling controlled
scanning in close proximity to the sample surface. Here, we present an optimized procedure
to fabricate single-crystal, all-diamond scanning probes starting from commercially
available diamond and show a highly efficient and robust approach for integrating
these devices in a generic atomic force microscope. Our scanning probes consisting
of a scanning nanopillar (200 nm diameter, 1-2 μm length) on a thin (<1 μm) cantilever
structure enable efficient light extraction from diamond in combination with a high
magnetic field sensitivity (ηAC≈50±20nT/Hz). As a first application of our scanning
probes, we image the magnetic stray field of a single Ni nanorod. We show that this
stray field can be approximated by a single dipole and estimate the NV-to-sample distance
to a few tens of nanometer, which sets the achievable resolution of our scanning probes.