Journal article

Detection of atomic spin labels in a lipid bilayer using a single-spin nanodiamond probe

Stefan Kaufmann, David A Simpson, Liam T Hall, Viktor Perunicic, Philipp Senn, Steffen Steinert, Liam P McGuinness, Brett C Johnson, Takeshi Ohshima, Frank Caruso, Joerg Wrachtrup, Robert E Scholten, Paul Mulvaney, Lloyd Hollenberg

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | NATL ACAD SCIENCES | Published : 2013

Abstract

Magnetic field fluctuations arising from fundamental spins are ubiquitous in nanoscale biology, and are a rich source of information about the processes that generate them. However, the ability to detect the few spins involved without averaging over large ensembles has remained elusive. Here, we demonstrate the detection of gadolinium spin labels in an artificial cell membrane under ambient conditions using a single-spin nanodiamond sensor. Changes in the spin relaxation time of the sensor located in the lipid bilayer were optically detected and found to be sensitive to near-individual (4 ± 2) proximal gadolinium atomic labels. The detection of such small numbers of spins in a model biologic..

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council under the Centre of Excellence Scheme


Awarded by Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship


Awarded by Australian Research Council Australian Laureate Fellowship Scheme


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under the Centre of Excellence Scheme (project no. CE110001027), the Centre for Neural Engineering (University of Melbourne), European Research Council Project SQUTEC (Spin Quantum Technologies), European Union Project DINAMO (Development of diamond intracellular nanoprobes for oncogen transformation dynamics monitoring in living cells), and the Baden-Wuerttemberg Foundation. S.K. was supported by a Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship PBEZP3-133244. F.C. is supported by the Australian Research Council Australian Laureate Fellowship Scheme (project no. FL120100030).