Nanometer-Scale Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Diffraction with Sub-\AA ngstrom Precision

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel nuclear magnetic resonance diffraction technique capable of atomic-scale resolution, enabling precise structural measurements of nanomaterials and atomic displacements with sub-angstrom accuracy.

Contribution

It demonstrates the first experimental realization of NMR diffraction at the atomic scale, achieving sub-angstrom precision in detecting spin modulations and atomic displacements.

Findings

Achieved <0.8 Å precision in measuring spin modulation periods.

Demonstrated 0.07 Å precision in detecting atomic displacements.

Established NMR diffraction as a new tool for atomic-scale materials characterization.

Abstract

Achieving atomic resolution is the ultimate limit of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and attaining this capability offers enormous technological and scientific opportunities, from drug development to understanding the dynamics in interacting quantum systems. In this work, we present a new approach to nanoMRI utilizing nuclear magnetic resonance diffraction (NMRd) -- a method that extends NMR imaging to probe the structure of periodic spin systems. The realization of NMRd on the atomic scale would create a powerful new methodology for materials characterization utilizing the spectroscopic capabilities of NMR. We describe two experiments that realize NMRd measurement of $^{31}$P spins in an indium-phosphide (InP) nanowire with sub-\r{A}ngstrom precision. In the first experiment, we encode a nanometer-scale spatial modulation of the $z$-axis magnetization by periodically inverting the $^{31}$P spins, and detect the period and position of the modulation with a precision of $<0.8$ \r{A}. In the second experiment, we demonstrate an interferometric technique, utilizing NMRd, for detecting an \r{A}ngstrom-scale displacement of the InP sample with a precision of 0.07 \r{A}. The diffraction-based techniques developed in this work represent new measurement modalities in NMR for probing the structure and dynamics of spins on sub-\r{A}ngstrom length scales, and demonstrate the feasibility of crystallographic MRI measurements.