Selective addressing of solid-state spins at the nanoscale via magnetic resonance frequency encoding

H Zhang,K Arai,C Belthangady,R L Walsworth,J.-C Jaskula

doi:10.1038/s41534-017-0033-3

Abstract

The nitrogen vacancy centre in diamond is a leading platform for nanoscale sensing and imaging, as well as quantum information processing in the solid state. To date, individual control of two nitrogen vacancy electronic spins at the nanoscale has been demonstrated. However, a key challenge is to scale up such control to arrays of nitrogen vacancy spins. Here, we apply nanoscale magnetic resonance frequency encoding to realize site-selective addressing and coherent control of a four-site array of nitrogen vacancy spins. Sites in the array are separated by 100 nm, with each site containing multiple nitrogen vacancies separated by ~15 nm. Microcoils fabricated on the diamond chip provide electrically tuneable magnetic field gradients ~0.1 G/nm. Tailored application of gradient fields and resonant microwaves allow site-selective nitrogen vacancy spin manipulation and sensing applications, including Rabi oscillations, imaging, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with nanoscale resolution. Microcoil-based magnetic resonance of solid-state spins provides a practical platform for quantum-assisted sensing, quantum information processing, and the study of nanoscale spin networks.

Highlights

In recent years, nitrogen vacancy (NV) colour centres in diamond have been successfully applied to a wide range of problems in quantum information, sensing, and metrology in both the physical and life sciences.[1]
Single NV centres have been used for a loophole-free Bell test of quantum realism,[2] probing nanoscale phenomena in condensed matter systems,[3,4,5,6,7] and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and imaging of nanoscale ensembles of nuclear spins[8,9,10] including single proteins[11] and individual proton spins.[12]
We experimentally demonstrate selective coherent manipulation of an array of four NV spin sites, spaced by ~100 nm, using a frequency encoding technique inspired by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Summary

Introduction

Nitrogen vacancy (NV) colour centres in diamond have been successfully applied to a wide range of problems in quantum information, sensing, and metrology in both the physical and life sciences.[1] For example, single NV centres have been used for a loophole-free Bell test of quantum realism,[2] probing nanoscale phenomena in condensed matter systems,[3,4,5,6,7] and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and imaging of nanoscale ensembles of nuclear spins[8,9,10] including single proteins[11] and individual proton spins.[12] Large ensembles of NV centres have provided magnetic imaging with combined micronscale resolution and millimetre field-of-view, e.g., for mapping paleomagnetism in primitive meteorites[13] and ancient Earth rocks,[14] genetic studies of magnetotactic bacteria,[15, 16] and identifying biomarkers in tumour cells.[17] it remains a challenge to realize the intermediate regime of mesoscopic arrays of NV spins with selective nanoscale addressing and coherent control of NVs at each site in the array. We apply these electrically tuneable magnetic field gradients to a series of demonstrations on the array of NV spins, including site-selective electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy, Rabi oscillations, Fourier imaging,[20] and NMR spectroscopy, all with spatial resolution ≈30 nm

Methods

Results

Conclusion