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Sensing of single nuclear spins in random thermal motion with proximate nitrogen-vacancy centers

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2016-03-08
JournalPhysical review. B./Physical review. B
AuthorsM. Bruderer, P. FernĂĄndez-Acebal, R. Aurich, Martin B. Plenio
InstitutionsUniversität Ulm
Citations3

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have emerged as valuable tools for\nsensing and polarizing spins. Motivated by potential applications in chemistry,\nbiology, and medicine, we show that NV-based sensors are capable of detecting\nsingle spin targets even if they undergo diffusive motion in an ambient thermal\nenvironment. Focusing on experimentally relevant diffusion regimes, we derive\nan effective model for the NV-target interaction, where parameters entering the\nmodel are obtained from numerical simulations of the target motion. The\npracticality of our approach is demonstrated by analyzing two realistic\nexperimental scenarios: (i) time-resolved sensing of a fluorine nuclear spin\nbound to an N-heterocyclic carbene-ruthenium (NHC-Ru) catalyst that is\nimmobilized on the diamond surface and (ii) detection of an electron spin label\nby an NV center in a nanodiamond, both attached to a vibrating chemokine\nreceptor in thermal motion. We find in particular that the detachment of a\nfluorine target from the NHC-Ru carrier molecule can be monitored with a time\nresolution of a few seconds.\n

  1. 2009 - Modern Surface Organometallic Chemistry [Crossref]