Widefield Nanodiamond Quantum Sensing Based on Light-Sheet Microscopy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel widefield quantum sensing technique using light-sheet microscopy with nanodiamonds containing NV centers, enabling high-throughput, low-phototoxicity, and 3D multi-modal bio-sensing.

Contribution

The authors develop a light-sheet microscopy-based widefield ODMR method for nanodiamond sensing, improving throughput, sensitivity, and biocompatibility over traditional approaches.

Findings

Demonstrated high-throughput sensing with wide-field configuration

Achieved fast 3D imaging and sensing via vertical light sheet mobility

Enhanced sensitivity by suppressing out-of-focus fluorescence

Abstract

Nanodiamonds containing nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are promising quantum sensors for biological applications thanks to their sub-micron spatial resolution, biocompatibility, and versatile multi-modal responses. However, the optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) measurement requires laser irradiation, creating a trade-off between high-throughput and low phototoxicity for applications in live cells. Here to address this challenge we develop a widefield quantum sensing method based on light-sheet microscopy (LSM), in which the sample is illuminated by a vertically movable laser sheet and the fluorescence is collected along the vertical axis that is orthogonal to the light sheet. This LSM-ODMR system is demonstrated to feature high throughput sensing due to the wide-field configuration, fast three-dimensional imaging and sensing due to the vertical mobility of the light sheet, enhanced sensitivity due to suppression of out-of-focus background fluorescence, and low phototoxicity for bio-sensing due to elimination of out-of-focus illumination. This LSM-based widefield nanodiamond sensing provides an approach for biological studies with low phototoxicity, offering three-dimensional and multi-modal sensing capability.