Electron induced nanoscale nuclear spin relaxation probed by hyperpolarization injection

Abstract

We report on experiments that quantify the role of a central electronic spin as a relaxation source for nuclear spins in its nanoscale environment. Our strategy exploits hyperpolarization injection from the electron as a means to controllably probe an increasing number of nuclear spins in the bath, and subsequently interrogate them with high fidelity. Our experiments are focused on a model system of a nitrogen vacancy (NV) center electronic spin surrounded by several hundred 13C nuclear spins. We observe that the 13C transverse spin relaxation times vary significantly with the extent of hyperpolarization injection, allowing the ability to measure the influence of electron mediated relaxation extending over several nanometers. These results suggest interesting new means to spatially discriminate nuclear spins in a nanoscale environment, and have direct relevance to dynamic nuclear polarization and quantum sensors and memories constructed from hyperpolarized nuclei.

5 pages, 4 figures. SI: 1 page, 2 figures. 3 anc movie files (also available on Youtube)

References in corpus (7)

• Quantum Computing
• Solid state quantum memory using the 31P nuclear spin
• Quenching Spin Decoherence in Diamond through Spin Bath Polarization
• Dynamic nuclear polarization and spin-diffusion in non-conducting solids
• Dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion
• Probing the dynamics of a nuclear spin bath in diamond through time-resolved central spin magnetometry
• Rapidly enhanced spin polarization injection in an optically pumped spin ratchet

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Room-temperature quantum sensing with photoexcited triplet electrons in organic crystals
• ${}^{13}$C Hyperpolarization with Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Micro- and Nanodiamonds for Sensitive Magnetic Resonance Applications
• Experimental observation of a time rondeau crystal: Temporal Disorder in Spatiotemporal Order
• Sensing with discrete time crystals
• Nanoscale engineering and dynamical stabilization of mesoscopic spin textures