Original title: Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Diamond for Quantum Biosensing: Magnetometry Techniques, Platforms and Applications
Sirsendu Ghosal, Umakant Prajapati, Sachin Negi, Saifian Farooq Bhat +2 · September 2026
Living cells produce tiny magnetic signals, but measuring them inside wet, biological environments is extremely difficult. In this review, researchers examine how nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds solve this problem. A nitrogen-vacancy center is a tiny defect inside a diamond crystal that acts like a miniature sensor. It works because scientists can use light to read out its quantum spin state. Tiny magnetic fields from biological activity alter this spin, allowing the diamond to detect both steady magnetic signals and changing magnetic noise under everyday conditions. The review details how these sensors operate in water at cellular and molecular scales. They can perform nanoscale nuclear magnetic resonance, track nerve activity, and detect abnormal or rogue cells. Although challenges like surface noise and signal loss exist, methods like surface modifications and laser-written optical structures help translate these quantum diamond sensors into useful biological tools.
Imagine rolling a marble across a dark floor to find a hidden coin. The marble veers slightly when it passes near metal, but the pull is weak and the room is full of other objects that also nudge it. You infer the coin's location from the marble's path. Here, the marble is a tiny magnetic probe inside a diamond, and the hidden metal objects are the magnetic fields given off by living cells.
NV centers in diamond work at room temperature and in watery environments, so they can probe biology directly. That could let doctors spot abnormal cells or map brain activity without labels or bulky equipment, and help researchers watch molecular processes as they happen.
The review identifies critical challenges — surface-induced decoherence, charge-state instability, and signal-to-noise limitations in biofluids — but does not quantify their impact or offer solutions. As a review, it surveys existing work rather than presenting new experimental results, so it does not establish which platform or technique performs best in practice.
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Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Diamond for Quantum Biosensing: Magnetometry Techniques, Platforms and Applications — Sirsendu Ghosal, Umakant Prajapati, Sachin Negi et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.