Diamond surface functionalization via visible light–driven C–H activation for nanoscale quantum sensing
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are a promising platform for nanoscale NMR sensing. Despite significant progress toward using NV centers to detect and localize nuclear spins down to the single spin level, NV-based spectroscopy of individual, intact, arbitrary target molecules remains elusive. Such sensing requires that target molecules are immobilized within nanometers of NV centers with long spin coherence. The inert nature of diamond typically requires harsh functionalization techniques such as thermal annealing or plasma processing, limiting the scope of functional groups that can be attached to the surface. Solution-phase chemical methods can be readily generalized to install diverse functional groups, but they have not been widely explored for single-crystal diamond surfaces. Moreover, realizing shallow NV centers with long spin coherence times requires highly ordered single-crystal surfaces, and solution-phase functionalization has not yet been shown with such demanding conditions. In this work, we report a versatile strategy to directly functionalize C-H bonds on single-crystal diamond surfaces under ambient conditions using visible light, forming C-F, C-Cl, C-S, and C-N bonds at the surface. This method is compatible with NV centers within 10 nm of the surface with spin coherence times comparable to the state of the art. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, we use shallow ensembles of NV centers to detect nuclear spins from surface-bound functional groups. Our approach to surface functionalization opens the door to deploying NV centers as a tool for chemical sensing and single-molecule spectroscopy.
Authors: Lila V. H. Rodgers, Suong T. Nguyen, James H. Cox, Kalliope Zervas, Zhiyang Yuan, Sorawis Sangtawesin, Alastair Stacey, Cherno Jaye, Conan Weiland, Anton Pershin, Adam Gali, Lars Thomsen, Simon A. Meynell, Lillian B. Hughes, Ania C. Bleszynski Jayich, Xin Gui, Robert J. Cava, Robert R. Knowles, Nathalie P. de Leon
Institutions: Princeton University, Suranaree University of Technology, The University of Melbourne, RMIT University, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Material Measurement Laboratory, Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Australian Synchrotron, University of California, Santa Barbara
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Energy, Princeton University, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem, Princeton Center for Complex Materials, Australian Synchrotron, RMIT University, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Suranaree University of Technology, Nemzeti Kutatási Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal, QuantERA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Office of Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate, Wigner Fizikai Kutatóközpont, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Division of Materials Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Material Measurement Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Awards: G1202744394, G1285306620, G1746067696, G1847291448, G2174132073, G2245482968, G2353337270, G241279073, G2450830071, G2696751721, G285949800, G3059208328, CENTER FOR MOLECULAR QUANTUM TRANSDUCTION (CMQT), G3262563802, Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), G3538198890, G357145406, G3603580073, G3915068459, Intermediate-scale experiments to investigate subsurface flow and transport of an apataite solution in support of Sr-90 sequestration at the Hanford 100N Area, G501274426, Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), G5765906131, G5975534213, EXPLORING NEW DIAMOND SURFACES WITH PRECISION CHEMISTRY AND QUANTUM SPECTROSCOPY, CAREER: Novel Diamond Surface Functionalization and Nanoscale Surface Spectroscopy for Quantum Applications, G6536552022, G6671297155, G6692005437, Princeton Center for Complex Materials, G6965541988, G7266390938, G7463374569, G7709156828, Enabling Quantum Leap: Q-AMASE-i: Quantum Foundry at UCSB, ATOM-DEFECT HYBRID QUANTUM SYSTEMS, G872144517, QII-TAQS: Quantum Metrological Platform for Single-Molecule Bio-Sensing
OpenAlex ID: W4392550858