Person:

Zhang, Huiliang

Optically-detected magnetic resonance using Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) color centres in diamond is a leading modality for nanoscale magnetic field imaging,1-3 as it pro-vides single electron spin sensitivity,4 three-dimensional resolution better than 1 nm,5 and applicability to a wide range of physical6-8 and biological9 samples under ambient conditions. To date, however, NV-diamond magnetic imaging has been performed using “real space” techniques, which are either limited by optical diffrac-tion to ≈250 nm resolution10 or require slow, point-by-point scanning for nanoscale resolution, e.g., using an atomic force microscope,11 magnetic tip,5 or super-resolution optical imaging.12 Here we introduce an alternative technique of Fourier magnetic imaging using NV-diamond. In analogy with conventional magnetic reso-nance imaging (MRI), we employ pulsed magnetic field gradients to phase-encode spatial information on NV electronic spins in wavenumber or “k-space”13 followed by a fast Fourier transform to yield real-space images with nanoscale resolution, wide field-of-view (FOV), and compressed sensing speed-up.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provide non-invasive information about multiple nuclear species in bulk matter, with wide-ranging applications from basic physics and chemistry to biomedical imaging1. However, the spatial resolution of conventional NMR and MRI is limited2 to several micrometres even at large magnetic fields (>1 T), which is inadequate for many frontier scientific applications such as single-molecule NMR spectroscopy and in vivo MRI of individual biological cells. A promising approach for nanoscale NMR and MRI exploits optical measurements of nitrogen–vacancy (NV) colour centres in diamond, which provide a combination of magnetic field sensitivity and nanoscale spatial resolution unmatched by any existing technology, while operating under ambient conditions in a robust, solid-state system3, 4, 5. Recently, single, shallow NV centres were used to demonstrate NMR of nanoscale ensembles of proton spins, consisting of a statistical polarization equivalent to ∼100–1,000 spins in uniform samples covering the surface of a bulk diamond chip6, 7. Here, we realize nanoscale NMR spectroscopy and MRI of multiple nuclear species (1H, 19F, 31P) in non-uniform (spatially structured) samples under ambient conditions and at moderate magnetic fields (∼20 mT) using two complementary sensor modalities.

Nanodiamonds doped with silicon-vacancy (Si-V) color centers are shown to be a promising candidate for cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging at the nanoscale, providing bright, non-bleaching, narrow-linewidth emission at wavelengths within the near-IR window of biological tissue. CL emission intensity from negative charge-state Si-V centers is greatly enhanced by increasing the nitrogen concentration during nanodiamond growth.

Nanodiamonds are of interest as nontoxic substrates for targeted drug delivery and as highly biostable fluorescent markers for cellular tracking. Beyond optical techniques, however, options for noninvasive imaging of nanodiamonds in vivo are severely limited. Here, we demonstrate that the Overhauser effect, a proton–electron polarization transfer technique, can enable high-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of nanodiamonds in water at room temperature and ultra-low magnetic field. The technique transfers spin polarization from paramagnetic impurities at nanodiamond surfaces to 1H spins in the surrounding water solution, creating MRI contrast on-demand. We examine the conditions required for maximum enhancement as well as the ultimate sensitivity of the technique. The ability to perform continuous in situ hyperpolarization via the Overhauser mechanism, in combination with the excellent in vivo stability of nanodiamond, raises the possibility of performing noninvasive in vivo tracking of nanodiamond over indefinitely long periods of time.

The spin chemical potential characterizes the tendency of spins to diffuse. Probing this quantity could provide insight into materials such as magnetic insulators and spin liquids and aid optimization of spintronic devices. Here we introduce single-spin magnetometry as a generic platform for nonperturbative, nanoscale characterization of spin chemical potentials. We experimentally realize this platform using diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers and use it to investigate magnons in a magnetic insulator, finding that the magnon chemical potential can be controlled by driving the system's ferromagnetic resonance. We introduce a symmetry-based two-fluid theory describing the underlying magnon processes, measure the local thermomagnonic torque, and illustrate the detection sensitivity using electrically controlled spin injection. Our results pave the way for nanoscale control and imaging of spin transport in mesoscopic systems.

Correlated electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging using functionalized nanoparticles is a promising nanoscale probe of biological structure and function. Nanodiamonds (NDs) that contain CL‐emitting color centers are particularly well suited for such applications. The intensity of CL emission from NDs is determined by a combination of factors, including particle size, density of color centers, efficiency of energy deposition by electrons passing through the particle, and conversion efficiency from deposited energy to CL emission. This paper reports experiments and numerical simulations that investigate the relative importance of each of these factors in determining CL emission intensity from NDs containing nitrogen‐vacancy (NV) color centers. In particular, it is found that CL can be detected from NV‐doped NDs with dimensions as small as ≈40 nm, although CL emission decreases significantly for smaller NDs.