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Associate Director,
Alan Bishop
Deputy Assoc. Director,
Paul Dotson
Deputy Assoc. Director, High-Performance Computing
Andrew White
Acting Center Director,
Information Science and Technology Center (IS&T)
Frank Alexander
Center Director,
Center for Nonlinear Studies (CNLS)
Bob Ecke
Office Leader,
Advanced Computing Solutions Office (ACS-PO)
Alex Kent
Chief of Staff,
Audrey Archuleta
Administration
Jeremy vonHarders
Susan Whittington

Key Contacts
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TA-3, Bldg. 123,
Room 218
505-667-6645

Single-Spin Microscope with Subnanoscale Resolution Based on Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance

Gennady P. Berman and Boris M. Chernobrod
LA-UR-09-00532

Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545

A goal for progress in material science, especially structural biology, is 3D imaging with subnanometer resolution, to replace current 2D imaging with atomic resolution. The most promising approach is magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) using oscillating cantilever-driven adiabatic reversals (OSCAAR) [1,2], a time modulation technique, usually requiring very low temperatures and therefore incompatible with the study of biological systems under physiological conditions.

We propose another approach in which a nanoscale photoluminescent center (PC) exhibits an optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) in the vicinity of a magnetic moment in the sample that is related to an unpaired individual electron or nuclear spins, or an ensemble of spins [3-5]. Our approach produces a method free of known limitations. Of the two types of sensor materials exhibiting ODMR properties (nitrogen-vacancy (N‑V) centers in diamond and CdSe nanoparticles), we suggested in [5] to use N‑V centers in diamond due to the extraordinary chemical and photostability, very long spin lifetimes, and single-spin detection capability at room temperatures.

Our proposed technique has been affirmed and the high sensitivity has been demonstrated by others [6,7] (see also a theoretical paper [8] from the team, led by Daniel Rugar at IBM's Almaden Research Center in California). These feasibility demonstrations of scanning technology and spin-echo techniques with single-spin resolution constitute the emergence of a novel magnetometer with potentially single electron and nuclear spin sensitivity, subnanometer resolution volumetric imaging, and the capability to operate at room temperatures. This magnetic scanning microscope is now expected to have many broad applications, from the 3D in situ imaging of biological structures to quantum computing.

References

[1]. D. Rugar, R. Budakian, H.J. Mamin, and B.W. Chui, Single spin detection by magnetic
    resonance force microscopy, Nature, 430 (6997), 329 (2004).
[2]. G.P. Berman, F. Borgonovi, V.N. Gorshkov, and V.I. Tsifrinovich, Magnetic Resonance
    Force Microscopy and a Single-Spin Measurement, WSPC, 2006.
[3] B.M. Chernobrod and G.P. Berman, Spin microscope based on optically detected magnetic resonance, J. Appl. Phys., 97, 014903 (2005).
[4] G.P. Berman and B.M. Chernobrod, US Patent 7,305,869 B1, Dec. 11, 2007.
[5] G. P. Berman, A.R. Bishop, B. M. Chernobrod, M.E. Hawley, G.W. Brown, and V.I. Tsifrinovich, Measurement of single electron and nuclear spin states based on optically detected magnetic resonance, J. Phys., Conference Series 38, 167 (2005).
[6] G. Balasubramanian, I.Y. Chan, R. Kolesov, M. Al-Hmoud, J. Tisler, C. Shin, C. Kim, A. Wojcik, P.R. Hemmer, A. Krueger, T. Hanke, A. Leitenstorfer, R. Bratschitsch, F. Jelesko, and J. Wrachtrup, Nanoscale imaging magnetometry with diamond pins under ambient conditions, Nature, 455, 648 (2008).
[7] J.R. Maze, P.L. Stawix, J.S. Hodges, S. Hong, J.M. Taylor, P. Cappellaro, L. Jiang, M.V. Gurudev Dutt, E. Togan, A.S. Zibrov, A. Yacoby, R.L. Walsworth, and M.D. Lukin, Nanoscale magnetic sensing with an individual electronic spin in diamond, Nature, 455, 644 (2008).
[8] C.L. Degen, Scanning field microscope with a diamond single-spin sensor, Appl. Phys.
      Lett., 92, 243111 (2006).