Physics and Applications of high-density spin-polarized systems with long coherence time

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该项目研究了新型材料，顺磁原子烧蚀成低温缓冲气体和金刚石晶体中的氮空位（NV）色心，这为创造具有前所未有的参数组合的磁场传感器提供了可能性：超高灵敏度、紧凑尺寸、宽工作温度范围等。这些设备的应用范围从最基本的物理学，例如，寻找宇宙物质-反物质不对称的原因，到生物相关物体的磁显微镜和芯片实验室微流控设备的核磁共振检测。所提出的工作的智力价值在于推进了当前对致密缓冲气体中顺磁原子和金刚石中宽温度范围内NV中心的自旋退相干机制的理解，以及获得具有超长电子自旋相干寿命的系统的技术发展。这一发展将对光学和原子物理界产生广泛的影响。该项目从原子、固态光学和低温物理领域汲取灵感，使这些学科交叉发展。这个实验的另一个更广泛的影响是通过培养研究生和本科生。该项目允许向学生教授广泛的物理技能的独特组合：低温学，光谱学和光泵浦，原子理论，固态光学，非线性光学，激光，电子学，真空技术等。除了扩大伯克利的现代低温和光学物理设施外，它还为伯克利与美国和国外（波兰，拉脱维亚，法国，澳大利亚，俄罗斯和德国）的其他几所大学之间的合作提供了基础。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The project investigates novel materials, paramagnetic atoms ablated into a cryogenic buffer gas and nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond crystals, that open a possibility for creating magnetic-field sensors with unprecedented combinations of parameters: ultra-high sensitivity, compact size, a broad range of operating temperatures, etc. The applications of these devices range from the most fundamental physics, for example, the search for the reasons for the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe, to magnetic microscopy of biologically relevant objects and nuclear-magnetic-resonance detection on lab-on-a-chip microfluidic devices. The intellectual merit of the proposed work consists of advancement of the current understanding of the mechanisms of spin-decoherence of paramagnetic atoms in a dense buffer gas and NV centers in diamond in a wide temperature range, as well as the development of techniques for obtaining systems with ultra-long electron spin-coherence lifetimes. This development will have a broad impact on the optics and atomic physics community. The project draws from the areas of atomic, solid-state optical, and low-temperature physics, cross-fertilizing these disciplines.The other part of the broader impact of this experiment is through training graduate and undergraduate students. The project allows for a unique combination of a broad range of physics skills to be taught to students: cryogenics, spectroscopy and optical pumping, atomic theory, solid-state optics, non-linear optics, lasers, electronics, vacuum techniques, etc. In addition to expanding modern cryogenic and optical physics facilities at Berkeley, it also provides a basis for partnership between Berkeley and several other universities, both in US and abroad (in Poland, Latvia, France, Australia, Russia, and Germany).