![\"Figure](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/e109_1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOver the past two decades, a major research effort has focused on defects called nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers that can be introduced into diamond. These defects make excellent quantum sensors because their electron spins are highly sensitive to magnetic, electric, and thermal fields. And they have potential applications in quantum information processing, as their spins can be optically polarized at room temperature and have long lifetimes and coherence times. Now Gabriel H\u00e9tet and his colleagues at the \u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure in France have shown how NV centers can also generate a spin-dependent force that is strong enough to bend a cantilever [1<\/a>]. This force might offer insights into the interplay between quantum physics and classical physics.<\/p>\n An NV center forms when two adjacent carbon atoms in a diamond\u2019s crystal lattice are replaced with a nitrogen atom and a lattice vacancy. H\u00e9tet and his colleagues took a micrometer-scale diamond, doped it with billions of NV centers, and attached it to the end of a micrometer-scale silicon cantilever. They then subjected the diamond to a uniform magnetic field and to green laser light, which polarized the electron spins of the NV centers. The interaction between the polarized spins and the magnetic field produced a force that deflected the cantilever\u2019s end. The force\u2019s strength and direction depended on the orientation of the spins with respect to the field.<\/p>\n The researchers say that this force could help scientists develop hybrid quantum\u2013classical technologies that couple spin systems to mechanical ones, extending the uses of NV centers in quantum sensing.<\/p>\n \u2013Ryan Wilkinson<\/p>\n Ryan Wilkinson is a Corresponding Editor for\u00a0Physics Magazine<\/a> based in Durham, UK.<\/p>\n ReferencesM. Perdriat et al., \u201cSpin-dependent force from an NV center ensemble on a microlever,\u201d Phys. Rev. B 112, 094419 (2025)<\/a>.Subject AreasRelated Articles<\/a><\/a><\/a> More Articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 9, 2025• Physics 18, s109 A minuscule diamond containing billions of impurities can be induced to produce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[199,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-145963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-physics","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}