Bringing diamond quantum sensors into application in biology and chemistry

自然科学的重大进展和见解往往是由创新实验工具的发展催化的。近年来建立了一种基于金刚石氮空位（NV）色心的新实验技术，它是灵敏荧光显微镜和核磁共振/核磁共振技术的结合。金刚石晶格中这些缺陷的荧光对磁场和电场等外部影响很敏感。这一特性使得在纳米尺度上对磁场进行超灵敏的测量成为可能，例如检测单个电子或核自旋以及活细胞中的磁场。尽管许多实验已经证明了这种量子传感器的非凡特性，但到目前为止，生物和化学问题还没有得到直接解决。这就是为什么这项提议的主要目的是将钻石量子传感器应用于生物学和化学。这种纳米传感器的突出特性是可以检测阿尔茨海默氏症和帕金森病患者大脑中的磁斑块。此外，nv中心应使用以确定神经元的活动和识别单个DNA分子。这些实验将为当前的生物和生化问题提供新的见解。

Major advances and insights in natural sciences are often catalyzed by the development of innovative experimental tools. In recent years a new experimental technique based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond has been established which is a combination of sensitive fluorescence microscopy and NMR/MRI techniques. The fluorescence of these defects in the diamond lattice is sensitive to external influences like magnetic and electric fields. This property enables the ultrasensitive measurement of magnetic fields on the nanoscale, for example the detection of single electron or nuclear spins as well as magnetic fields in living cells. Whereas many experiments have demonstrated the extraordinary properties of this quantum sensor, biological and chemical problems have not been addressed directly so far. That is why the main aim of this proposal is to bring the diamond quantum sensors into application in biology and chemistry. The outstanding properties of this nanosensor shall be used to detect magnetic plaques in the brains of Alzheimers and Parkinsons patients. In addition, the NV-centers shall be used to determine the activity of neurons and to identify single DNA molecules. These experiments will give new insights into current biological and biochemical problems.