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. 2014 Nov 12;14(11):6443-8.
doi: 10.1021/nl502988n. Epub 2014 Oct 31.

All-optical sensing of a single-molecule electron spin

A O Sushkov  1 , N Chisholm, I Lovchinsky, M Kubo, P K Lo, S D Bennett, D Hunger, A Akimov, R L Walsworth, H Park, M D Lukin
Affiliations

All-optical sensing of a single-molecule electron spin

A O Sushkov et al. Nano Lett. .

Abstract

We demonstrate an all-optical method for magnetic sensing of individual molecules in ambient conditions at room temperature. Our approach is based on shallow nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers near the surface of a diamond crystal, which we use to detect single paramagnetic molecules covalently attached to the diamond surface. The manipulation and readout of the NV centers is all-optical and provides a sensitive probe of the magnetic field fluctuations stemming from the dynamics of the electronic spins of the attached molecules. As a specific example, we demonstrate detection of a single paramagnetic molecule containing a gadolinium (Gd(3+)) ion. We confirm single-molecule resolution using optical fluorescence and atomic force microscopy to colocalize one NV center and one Gd(3+)-containing molecule. Possible applications include nanoscale and in vivo magnetic spectroscopy and imaging of individual molecules.

Keywords: Nitrogen vacancy center; all-optical; diamond; magnetometry; single-molecule spin.

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