Abstract
We demonstrate a method of magnetic resonance imaging with single nuclear-spin sensitivity under ambient conditions. Our method employs isolated electronic-spin quantum bits (qubits) as magnetic resonance "reporters" on the surface of high purity diamond. These spin qubits are localized with nanometer-scale uncertainty, and their quantum state is coherently manipulated and measured optically via a proximal nitrogen-vacancy color center located a few nanometers below the diamond surface. This system is then used for sensing, coherent coupling, and imaging of individual proton spins on the diamond surface with angstrom resolution. Our approach may enable direct structural imaging of complex molecules that cannot be accessed from bulk studies. It realizes a new platform for probing novel materials, monitoring chemical reactions, and manipulation of complex systems on surfaces at a quantum level.
Highlights
We demonstrate a method of magnetic resonance imaging with single nuclear-spin sensitivity under ambient conditions
Our method employs isolated electronic-spin quantum bits as magnetic resonance “reporters” on the surface of high purity diamond. These spin qubits are localized with nanometer-scale uncertainty, and their quantum state is coherently manipulated and measured optically via a proximal nitrogen-vacancy color center located a few nanometers below the diamond surface
To measure the quantum states of surface electron reporter spins through the nitrogen vacancy (NV)-reporter magnetic dipole interaction, the nearby shallow NV center is initialized into the ms 1⁄4 0 sublevel using an optical pumping laser pulse at 532 nm; the spin states of the NV center and of the reporter spins are independently manipulated using pulsed magnetic resonance sequences, and the final quantum state of the NV center is measured using its spin-state-dependent fluorescence [Fig. 1(b)]
Summary
In order to determine the nature of these nuclear spins, we repeat the measurements and analysis at several magnetic fields, and find that the reporter spin-echo modulation frequency scales with the applied magnetic field in agreement with the proton gyromagnetic ratio of 2π × 4.26 kHz=G [Fig. 3(b), blue points].
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