High-Resolution NMR Spectroscopy at Large Fields with Nitrogen Vacancy Centers

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel method for high-resolution NMR spectroscopy using nitrogen-vacancy centers at large magnetic fields, enabling detection of nuclear signals with improved spectral resolution.

Contribution

The authors introduce a new technique that maps nuclear energy shifts to sensor signals, overcoming coupling challenges at high frequencies in NV-based NMR.

Findings

Achieved high spectral resolution limited by nuclear spin coherence.

Enabled detection of NMR signals at large magnetic fields with NV centers.

Demonstrated effective transfer of nuclear spin information to the sensor.

Abstract

Ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are used as sensors to detect NMR signals from micron-sized samples at room temperature. In this scenario, the regime of large magnetic fields is especially interesting as it leads to a large nuclear thermal polarisation -- thus, to a strong sensor response even in low concentration samples -- while chemical shifts and J-couplings become more accessible. Nevertheless, this regime remains largely unexplored owing to the difficulties to couple NV-based sensors with high-frequency nuclear signals. In this work, we circumvent this problem with a method that maps the relevant energy shifts in the amplitude of an induced nuclear spin signal that is subsequently transferred to the sensor. This stage is interspersed with free-precession periods of the sample nuclear spins where the sensor does not participate. Thus, our method leads to high spectral resolutions ultimately limited by the coherence of the nuclear spin signal.