Nitrogen-Vacancy Ensemble Magnetometry Based on Pump Absorption

We demonstrate magnetic field sensing using an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centers by recording the variation in the pump-light absorption due to the spin-polarization dependence of the total ground state population. Using a 532 nm pump laser, we measure the absorption of native nitrogen-vacancy centers in a chemical vapor deposited diamond placed in a resonant optical cavity. For a laser pump power of 0.4 W and a cavity finesse of 45, we obtain a noise floor of $\sim$ 100 nT/$\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ spanning a bandwidth up to 125 Hz. We project a photon shot-noise-limited sensitivity of $\sim$ 1 pT/$\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ by optimizing the nitrogen-vacancy concentration and the detection method.