Nanoscale Electron Spin Resonance of Radicals Using a NV Center in Diamond*

A nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is a promising candidate for applications in room temperature magnetic sensing with single spin sensitivity. In this presentation, we will discuss nanoscale NV-based electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy of radicals where the target radicals are located outside the diamond lattice. For sample preparation, we fabricate NV centers with a long decoherence time near the diamond surface by employing a low energy ion implantation and subsequent annealing process [1]. A surface chemistry technique is used to graft functional target radicals on the diamond surface [2]. Then, we perform double electron-electron resonance (DEER) spectroscopy to obtain ESR spectrum the target radicals at the nanoscale which provides the fingerprint of the radicals and their dynamics.

[1] C. Abeywardana, Z. Peng, L. C. Mugica, E. Kleinsasser, K.-M. C. Fu and S. Takahashi, Appl. Mag. Res. 48, 571 (2017)
[2] R. D. Akiel, X. Zhang, C. Abeywardana, V. Stepanov, P. Z. Qin and S. Takahashi, J. Phys. Chem. B 120, 4003 (2016)