Detecting and polarizing nuclear spins with double resonance on a single electron spin

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 111; no. 6; p. 067601
• Main Authors: London, P, Scheuer, J, Cai, J-M, Schwarz, I, Retzker, A, Plenio, M B, Katagiri, M, Teraji, T, Koizumi, S, Isoya, J, Fischer, R, McGuinness, L P, Naydenov, B, Jelezko, F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 09.08.2013
• Subjects: Electrons; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Models, Theoretical; Nitrogen - chemistry; Nuclear Physics - methods
• ISSN: 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.067601

We report the detection and polarization of nuclear spins in diamond at room temperature by using a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center. We use Hartmann-Hahn double resonance to coherently enhance the signal from a single nuclear spin while decoupling from the noisy spin bath, which otherwise limits the detection sensitivity. As a proof of principle, we (i) observe coherent oscillations between the NV center and a weakly coupled nuclear spin and (ii) demonstrate nuclear-bath cooling, which prolongs the coherence time of the NV sensor by more than a factor of 5. Our results provide a route to nanometer scale magnetic resonance imaging and novel quantum information processing protocols.