Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy using a single artificial atom

Abstract

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is an important technology in physics, chemistry, materials science, and biology. Sensitive detection with a small sample volume is a key objective in these areas, because it is crucial, for example, for the readout of a highly packed spin based quantum memory or the detection of unlabeled metalloproteins in a single cell. In conventional EPR spectrometers, the energy transfer from the spins to the cavity at a Purcell enhanced rate plays an essential role and requires the spins to be resonant with the cavity, however the size of the cavity (limited by the wavelength) makes it difficult to improve the spatial resolution. Here, we demonstrate a novel EPR spectrometer using a single artificial atom as a sensitive detector of spin magnetization. The artificial atom, a superconducting flux qubit, provides advantages both in terms of its quantum properties and its much stronger coupling with magnetic fields. We have achieved a sensitivity of $\sim$400 spins/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ with a magnetic sensing volume around $10^{-14}{\lambda }^3$ (50 femto-liters). This corresponds to an improvement of two-order of magnitude in the magnetic sensing volume compared with the best cavity based spectrometers while maintaining a similar sensitivity as those spectrometers . Our artificial atom is suitable for scaling down and thus paves the way for measuring single spins on the nanometer scale.

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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Variational-State Quantum Metrology
• Error-Mitigated Quantum Metrology via Virtual Purification
• A long-lived capacitively shunted flux qubit embedded in a 3D cavity
• Identification of different types of high-frequency defects in superconducting qubits
• Electron Spin Resonance with up to 20 Spin Sensitivity Measured using a Superconducting Flux Qubit
• Preparing ground states of the XXZ model using the quantum annealing with inductively coupled superconducting flux qubits
• Experimental protection of quantum coherence by using a phase-tunable image drive
• Magnetometry of neurons using a superconducting qubit
• Quantum metrology based on symmetry-protected adiabatic transformation: Imperfection, finite time duration, and dephasing
• Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with a superconducting flux qubit
• Dual on-chip SQUID measurement protocol for flux detection in large magnetic fields
• Polarizing electron spins with a superconducting flux qubit
• Characterization and generation of a SQL-beating catlike state through repetitive measurements
• Use of Electron Paramagnetic resonance (EPR) technique to build quantum computers: n-qubit (n=1,2,3,4) Toffoli Gates