Diamond Radio Receiver: Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers as Fluorescent Transducers of Microwave Signals

The nitrogen-vacancy (N-$V$) center is a lattice defect in diamond, consisting of a substitutional nitrogen atom and an adjacent vacancy. This study exploits the electron-spin-dependent photoluminescence of N-$V$ centers to use them as radio receivers. The centers transduce frequency-modulated (FM) microwave radio signals to amplitude-modulated (AM) optical fluorescence signals. This effect has potential for photonics, quantum information processing, microwave applications, and wireless communication, even in extreme environments.