Two-electron-spin ratchets as a platform for microwave-free dynamic nuclear polarization of arbitrary material targets

Abstract

Optically-pumped color centers in semiconductor powders can potentially induce high levels of nuclear spin polarization in surrounding solids or fluids at or near ambient conditions, but complications stemming from the random orientation of the particles and the presence of unpolarized paramagnetic defects hinder the flow of polarization beyond the defect's host material. Here, we theoretically study the spin dynamics of interacting nitrogen-vacancy (NV) and substitutional nitrogen (P1) centers in diamond to show that outside protons spin-polarize efficiently upon a magnetic field sweep across the NV-P1 level anti-crossing. The process can be interpreted in terms of an NV-P1 spin ratchet, whose handedness - and hence the sign of the resulting nuclear polarization - depends on the relative timing of the optical excitation pulse. Further, we find that the polarization transfer mechanism is robust to NV misalignment relative to the external magnetic field, and efficient over a broad range of electron-electron and electron-nuclear spin couplings, even if proxy spins feature short coherence or spin-lattice relaxation times. Therefore, these results pave the route towards the dynamic nuclear polarization of arbitrary spin targets brought in proximity with a diamond powder under ambient conditions.

References in corpus (18)

• Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg interferometry
• Chemical control of the charge state of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond
• Detecting and polarizing nuclear spins with double resonance on a single electron spin
• Optical polarization of nuclear spins in silicon carbide
• Bulk Nuclear Polarization Enhanced at Room-Temperature by Optical Pumping
• Orientation independent room-temperature optical 13C hyperpolarization in powdered diamond
• Probing molecular dynamics at the nanoscale via an individual paramagnetic center
• Hyperpolarized Long-T1 Silicon Nanoparticles for Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Quantum probe hyperpolarisation of molecular nuclear spins
• Spin Amplification for Magnetic Sensors Employing Crystal Defects
• Experimental control of transport resonances in a coherent quantum rocking ratchet
• Enhanced dynamic nuclear polarization via swept microwave frequency combs
• Multi-spin-assisted optical pumping of bulk 13C nuclear spin polarization in diamond
• Microwave-assisted cross-polarization of nuclear spin ensembles from optically-pumped nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond
• Dynamics of frequency-swept nuclear spin optical pumping in powdered diamond at low magnetic fields
• Microwave-Free Nuclear Magnetic Resonance at Molecular Scales
• Environment Assisted Metrology with Spin Qubit
• All-optical hyperpolarization of electron and nuclear spins in diamond

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Nonadiabatic Landau-Zener-Stückelberg-Majorana transitions, dynamics, and interference
• Prospects for nuclear spin hyperpolarisation of molecular samples using nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond
• 13C dynamic nuclear polarization in diamond via a microwave-free 'integrated' cross effect
• Photoluminescence at the ground state level anticrossing of the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond
• A method for simulating level anti-crossing spectra of diamond crystals containing NV${}^{-}$ color centers
• Photoinduced charge injection from shallow point defects in diamond into water
• Terahertz spin ratchet effect in magnetic metamaterials
• Microwave-free dynamic nuclear polarization via sudden thermal jumps
• Nuclear spin temperature reversal via continuous radio-frequency driving
• Robust external spin hyperpolarization of quadrupolar nuclei enabled by strain
• Optically pumped spin polarization as a probe of many-body thermalization
• One-directional polarization transport in electron/nuclear spin chains with loss and gain