Colour centers in diamond are lattice defects that emit and absorb light and therefore give diamond colour. Interestingly, some of these colour centers also possess spin degrees of freedom whose properties can then be read out optically. The excellent coherence properties of a specific colour center, the nitrogen vacancy center, provides the basis for a wide variety of potential applications that range from quantum information processing and quantum computing to sensing and molecular imaging in biological and medical research. In this lecture I will explain strategies that control noise to allow both sensing in the presence of unavoidable environmental noise and of the hyperpolarization of internal and external nuclear spins. I will explore the potential of diamond hybrid devices that interface diamonds with other materials. Applications of this approach to the development of new designs for quantum simulators, novel designs for force sensors and bio-nano quantum devices exploiting the self-assembling capabilities of biological systems will be discussed.
The lecture will present both the theory underlying these ideas and first experimental results towards these goals.