Nanoscale spin imaging and sensing
We use atomic defects in diamond, so-called nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres, to probe nearby spins at the nanometre scale. This technique provides non-invasive sensing with unprecedented spatial resolution and allows us to perform nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies of only a few 1000 nuclear spins. We aim to push the sensitivity and spectral resolution of these sensors to perform chemically resolved NMR in nanoscale volumes.
Temperature sensing in single-cell organisms:
This interdisciplinary project addresses questions at the nanoscale in living organisms. We use NV centres in diamond nanocrystals, which act as bio-compatible nano-sensors, to probe magnetic field and temperature at the nanoscale in single-cell organisms. In the GIF below, the mitochondrial network of a HeLa cell (green) is targeted with nanodiamonds (red) for sensing.
Hamiltonian engineering of spin ensembles:
A newly-developed, versatile toolkit for spin control allows the engineering of spin-spin interactions and local disorder in an ensemble of spins, using only global control pulses (Zhou et al. PRX 2020 and Choi et al. PRX 2020). We will explore the possibilities this toolkit provides for Hamiltonian engineering in dense spin ensembles in 2D and 3D systems.
New materials discovery using quantum sensors:
Scanning probe quantum sensing using NV centres allows the mapping of magnetic and conductance features on the nanoscale under a wide range of temperatures and external magnetic field strengths. We are working on applying this technique to layered magnetic structures with topologically protected spin textures.