A nitrogen-vacancy (NV⁻) centre in a nanodiamond, levitated in high vacuum, has recently been proposed as a probe for demonstrating mesoscopic centre-of-mass superpositions and for testing quantum gravity. Here, we study the behaviour of optically levitated nanodiamonds containing NV⁻ centres at sub-atmospheric pressures and show that while they burn in air, this can be prevented by replacing the air with nitrogen. However, in nitrogen the nanodiamonds graphitize below ≈10 mB. Exploiting the Brownian motion of a levitated nanodiamond, we extract its internal temperature (T_i) and find that it would be detrimental to the NV⁻ centre’s spin coherence time. These values of T_i make it clear that the diamond is not melting, contradicting a recent suggestion. Additionally, using the measured damping rate of a levitated nanoparticle at a given pressure, we propose a new way of determining its size.

Ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy centers (NVCs) in diamond can be employed for sensitive magnetometry. In this work, we present a fiber-coupled NVC magnetometer with an unshielded sensitivity of $(30\pm 10)\mathrm{pT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ in a (10–500)-Hz frequency range. This sensitivity is enabled by a relatively high green-to-red photon conversion efficiency, the use of a [100] bias-field alignment, microwave and lock-in amplifier (LIA) parameter optimization, as well as a balanced hyperfine-excitation scheme. Furthermore, a silicon carbide ($\mathrm{SiC}$) heat spreader is used for microwave delivery, alongside low-strain 1-${\mathrm{mm}}^3{}^{12}$$\mathrm{C}$ diamonds, one of which is placed in a second magnetically insensitive fluorescence-collecting sensor head for common-mode noise cancellation. The magnetometer is capable of detecting signals from sources such as a vacuum pump up to 2 m away, with some orientation dependence but no complete dead zones, demonstrating its potential for use in remote-sensing applications.

The superposition principle is one of the main tenets of quantum mechanics. Despite its counter-intuitiveness, it has been experimentally verified using electrons, photons, atoms, and molecules. However, a similar experimental demonstration using a nano or a micro particle is non-existent. Here in this article, exploiting macroscopic quantum coherence and quantum tunneling, we propose an experiment using a levitated magnetic nanoparticle to demonstrate such an effect. It is shown that the spatial separation between the delocalized wavepackets of a 20 nm ferrimagnetic yttrium iron garnet (YIG) nanoparticle can be as large as 5 μm. We argue that, in addition to using for testing one of the most fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics, this scheme can simultaneously be used to test different modifications, such as wavefunction collapse models, to the standard quantum mechanics. Furthermore, we show that the spatial superposition of a core–shell structure, a YIG core and a non-magnetic silica shell, can be used to probe quantum gravity.

Interferometric position detection of levitated particles is crucial for the centre-of-mass (CM) motion cooling and manipulation of levitated particles. In combination with balanced detection and feedback cooling, this system has provided picometer scale position sensitivity, zeptonewton force detection, and sub-millikelvin CM temperatures. In this article, we develop an analytical model of this detection system and compare its performance with experimental results allowing us to explain the presence of spurious frequencies in the spectra.

Transistor reliability characterization studies are reported for a state of the art 22nm 3-D tri-gate HK/MG SoC technology with logic and HV I/O transistor architecture. TDDB, BTI and HCI degradation modes for logic and I/O transistors are studied and excellent reliability is demonstrated. In order to simultaneously integrate logic and HV 3-D tri-gate transistors with robust reliability, the importance of process optimization is emphasized.

Band-structure effects on channel carrier density in the ultrathin-body end of the ITRS roadmap silicon (100) n-type metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) are assessed here using a semi-empirical nearest-neighbor sp³d⁵s^* tight-binding model with spin-orbit interaction. The calculations focus on the body thickness range between 10 and 18 atomic layers (∼1.5–2.5 nm). At this range, the standard effective mass approach is limited by its inability to capture the conduction band nonparabolicity effects and the subband splitting. The tight-binding simulations show interesting effects of ground-state subband splitting in this thickness range, and as a result of this, the channel charge density was found to fluctuate by as much as 30%. Additionally, it was observed that strict process tolerance is necessary in this thickness range in order to maintain an acceptable threshold voltage variation.