STTR Phase I: Nanophotonic magnetic-resonance spectrometer for chemical trace analysis

STTR 第一阶段：用于化学痕量分析的纳米光子磁共振波谱仪

• 批准号: 1549836
• 负责人: Andrejs Jarmola
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: ODMR Technologies, Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1549836&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Nanophotonic; magnetic; resonance

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will result in the fabrication and validation of an optically-detected magnetic resonance sensor for determining the chemical composition of trace quantities of liquid and powder samples. This is critical in numerous industries ranging from defense forensics and environmental safety, to materials synthesis and petroleum exploration. The desire for chemically-specific detection of trace analytes has spurred the growth of a large and diverse market, served by techniques such as Raman spectroscopy and high-field benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). These are already sizeable markets (on the order of $1 billion) with annual growth rates of 5-10%, depending on product type and geography. This new sensor will have a direct and broad impact on public security and defense, for example in airport and border security checks. The reliable detection and analysis of small quantities of potentially-threatening chemicals and materials are essential for simultaneously meeting the increased demands for security and eliminating the need to test large quantities of analyte. An impact on science education is also anticipated, based on the anticipated development of an affordable turnkey system, which can be used in instructional and research settings.The intellectual merit of this project lies in the application of the basic physics of solid-state defects in diamond to create a device with unique properties desirable for chemical trace analysis. Unlike many NMR systems, this spectrometer operates at ambient temperature, in a range of magnetic fields easily generated by small permanent magnets, and with sub-microliter sample volumes. The analyte is delivered via a microfluidic chip to a sensor region consisting of a nanostructured diamond doped with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers. By applying pulses of laser light and microwaves, the magnetic field from the analyte's precessing nuclear magnetization becomes encoded in the NV fluorescence signal. Analysis of the fluorescence signal reveals the NMR spectrum of the analyte, from which the chemical composition can be extracted based on established libraries. This platform bypasses two common problems that hinder NMR sensitivity using traditional coil-based approaches. First, it does not rely on thermal polarization and thus allows operation at ambient temperature and low magnetic field without affecting the signal strength. Second, it uses a magnetometer to directly measure the nuclear magnetization and thus avoids the poor sensitivity that is fundamental to frequency-dependent flux detection.

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目将导致光学检测磁共振传感器的制造和验证，用于确定微量液体和粉末样品的化学成分。这在从国防取证和环境安全到材料合成和石油勘探的众多行业中至关重要。对痕量分析物的化学特异性检测的需求已经刺激了一个巨大且多样化的市场的增长，该市场由诸如拉曼光谱和高场台式核磁共振（NMR）的技术服务。这些市场规模已经很大（约10亿美元），年增长率为5- 10%，具体取决于产品类型和地理位置。这种新的传感器将对公共安全和国防产生直接和广泛的影响，例如在机场和边境安全检查中。可靠检测和分析少量具有潜在威胁的化学品和材料对于同时满足日益增长的安全需求和消除测试大量分析物的需求至关重要。预计将开发一个可供教学和研究使用的负担得起的交钥匙系统，这一项目也将对科学教育产生影响，其智力价值在于应用金刚石固态缺陷的基本物理原理，创造一种具有独特性能的设备，用于化学痕量分析。与许多NMR系统不同，该光谱仪在环境温度下工作，在小型永磁体容易产生的磁场范围内工作，并且具有亚微升的样品体积。通过微流控芯片将分析物递送到由掺杂有氮空位（NV）色心的纳米结构金刚石组成的传感器区域。通过施加激光和微波脉冲，来自分析物旋进核磁化的磁场被编码在NV荧光信号中。对荧光信号的分析揭示了分析物的NMR光谱，可以基于建立的库从中提取化学组成。该平台绕过了使用传统的基于线圈的方法阻碍NMR灵敏度的两个常见问题。首先，它不依赖于热极化，因此允许在环境温度和低磁场下工作，而不会影响信号强度。其次，它使用磁力计直接测量核磁化，从而避免了对频率相关通量检测至关重要的灵敏度差。