Quantum Technologies for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance at the Nanoscale
Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
Final Report Abstract
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) uses nuclear spins as atomic scale probes of their magnetic environment inside a molecule to obtain structural information with unmatched specificity. This makes NMR a technique of major importance in biology, chemistry, medicine and physics. However, current NMR technology is subject to physical limitations that lead to relatively poor sensitivities and hence stringent limits on the smallest detectable sample size that prevent its extension to the submicron scale. The principal objective of this Reinhart Koselleck-Project is the theoretical development of NMR protocols based on colour centres in diamond. The project has made significant progress on each of its three main project lines which are (i) new coherent control and detection schemes as well as diamond hybrid systems to increase robustness and sensitivity with (ii) methods for the hyperpolarisation of nuclei in liquid solution to increase the NMR signal and (iii) the application of advanced signal processing techniques for the optimal extraction of information from noisy and undersampled signals. The combination of these concepts forms the essential basis for the realisation of high resolution NMR on otherwise inaccessible length scales ranging from the micron to the nanoscale. As a particularly exciting unexpected development, our scientific work on these topics has been recognised by the European Research Council with the award of the ERC Synergy grant HyperQ. This will enable to place the development of the research of the Reinhart Koselleck Project on a much broader basis by allowing their realisation in close collaboration with the co-awardees of the HyperQ project, the experimentalist Fedor Jelezko and Jan-Henrik Ardenkjaer Larsen.
Publications
- On the robustness of the NV-NMR spectrometer setup to magnetic field inhomogeneities. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 110502 (2020)
Y. Vaknin, B. Tratzmiller, T. Gefen, I. Schwartz, M.B. Plenio, and A. Retzker
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.110502) - Versatile Atomic Magnetometry Assisted by Bayesian Inference. Phys. Rev. Applied 16, 024044 (2021)
R. Puebla, Y. Ban, J.F. Haase, M.B. Plenio, M. Paternostro, and J. Casanova
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.16.024044)
