Hyperpolarization-enhanced NMR spectroscopy with femtomole sensitivity using quantum defects in diamond

Understand

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a widely used tool for chemical analysis and molecular structure identification.

• Because it typically relies on the weak magnetic fields produced by a small thermal nuclear spin polarization, NMR suffers from poor molecule-number sensitivity compared to other analytical techniques.
• Recently, a new class of NMR sensors based on optically-probed nitrogen-vacancy (NV) quantum defects in diamond have allowed molecular spectroscopy from sample volumes several orders of magnitude smaller than the most sensitive inductive detectors.
• To date, however, NV-NMR spectrometers have only been able to observe signals from pure, highly concentrated samples.