  The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is supposed to be a building
block for quantum computing and nanometer scale metrology at ambient
conditions. Therefore, precise knowledge of its quantum states is crucial.
Here, we experimentally show that under usual operating conditions the NV
exists in an equilibrium of two charge states (70% in the expected negative
(NV-) and 30% in the neutral one (NV0)). Projective quantum non-demolition
measurement of the nitrogen nuclear spin enables the detection even of the
additional, optically inactive state. The nuclear spin can be coherently driven
also in NV0 (T1 ~ 90 ms and T2 ~ 6 micro-s).
