Progress in Nitrogen Vacancy Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Detection

Abstract

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful analytic tool of use in the physics, chemistry, and biology disciplines, yet the resource costs to buy, maintain, and use the spectrometer limit the tool's accessibility and the limited sensitivity and spectral resolution limit its application space. In recent years, Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) centers have emerged as an alternative NMR sensor due to their atomic-scale resolution and minimal resource costs. However, NV-NMR similarly suffers from limited sensitivity and spectral resolution due to the technical challenges associated with increasing the applied magnetic field. In this work, the sensitivity of an existing NV-NMR setup is characterized to determine the experimental modifications necessary for measurements at higher magnetic fields (>0.5 T). As a consequence of this characterization, a coplanar waveguide integrated with a microfluidic channel is designed. Finally, metabolomics, particularly spheroids, are reviewed for a potential high-impact NV-NMR application given historically relevant sample concentration sensitivities.