Journal article

Detection of Paramagnetic Spins with an Ultrathin van der Waals Quantum Sensor

Islay O Robertson, Sam C Scholten, Priya Singh, Alexander J Healey, Fernando Meneses, Philipp Reineck, Hiroshi Abe, Takeshi Ohshima, Mehran Kianinia, Igor Aharonovich, Jean-Philippe Tetienne

ACS Nano | American Chemical Society | Published : 2023

Abstract

Detecting magnetic noise from small quantities of paramagnetic spins is a powerful capability for chemical, biochemical, and medical analysis. Quantum sensors based on optically addressable spin defects in bulk semiconductors are typically employed for such purposes, but the 3D crystal structure of the sensor inhibits sensitivity by limiting the proximity of the defects to the target spins. Here we demonstrate the detection of paramagnetic spins using spin defects hosted in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), a van der Waals material that can be exfoliated into the 2D regime. We first create negatively charged boron vacancy (VB–) defects in a powder of ultrathin hBN nanoflakes (<10 atomic monolay..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council (ARC)


Awarded by Office of Naval Research Global


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through grants CE170100012, CE200100010, FT200100073, DE200100279, DP220100178, and FT220100053 and by the Office of Naval Research Global (N62909-22-1-2028). We thank Yongliang Chen for providing AFM data. The work was performed in part at the RMIT Micro Nano Research Facility (MNRF) in the Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) and the RMIT Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility (RMMF). I.O.R. and A.J.H. are supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. S.C.S. gratefully acknowledges the support of an Ernst and Grace Matthaei scholarship. P.R. acknowledges support through an RMIT University Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellowship. Part of this study was supported by QST President's Strategic Grant "QST International Research Initiative".