Ultrahigh Resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging -On-A-Chip

1991年，有人提出，核磁共振（NMR）光谱的灵敏度在一个单一的质子水平可能是可以实现的，通过机械检测使用扫描探针技术类似于原子力显微镜。达到这种敏感程度将构成真正革命性的进步；它将允许具有化学特异性的三维原子尺度成像。机械检测的核磁共振成像，通常被称为磁共振力显微镜（MRFM），现在比传统的核磁共振成像要灵敏许多个数量级。机械检测技术显然提供了惊人的进步，很明显，MRFM的显著额外收益即将到来。我们预计原子分辨率的核磁共振成像将在短短几年内实现。PI和co-PI提出的最终目标是单核分辨率的MRI仪器，将需要一种全新的方法，一种涉及混合电/磁/光电/机械设备的单芯片集成。实现这样的设备将是一个重要的偏离路径，所有当前的工人，世界范围内，在这个新的MRFM领域。这个新的研究方向就是本次提交中提出的。如果获得这笔拨款，将允许PI利用他目前在纳米机电系统（NEMS）方面的努力和设施，在MRFM的新型集成系统（纳米芯片）的工程和科学方面取得重要进展。全面实施后，磁共振力显微镜将成为一种独特的扫描探针仪器，提供原子力显微镜（AFM）的高空间分辨率，同时在工程科学中提供MRI的三维可视化能力，它将为广泛的新材料和基于埋藏界面的电子设备提供新的，高分辨率的微观地下特性研究。这是一种非破坏性和化学特异性的技术。

In 1991 it was proposed that nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry with sensitivity at the level of a single proton might be achievable through mechanical detection using scanned probe techniques similar to AFM. Achieving this degree of sensitivity would constitute a truly revolutionary advance; it would permit three-dimensional atomic-scale imaging, with chemical specificity. Mechanically-detected MRI, often called Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM) is now many orders of magnitude more sensitive than conventional MRI. The mechanical detection technique has clearly provided staggering advances, and it is clear that significant additional gains are on the horizon for MRFM. We project that MRI with atomic resolution will be attained in just a few years.The PI and co-PI propose as an ultimate goal MRI instruments with single-nucleus resolution, will require a radically new approach, one that involves single-chip integration of hybrid electro/magneto/opto/mechanical devices. Realizing such devices would be an important departure from the path being taken by all current workers, worldwide, in this new field of MRFM. This new research direction is what has been proposed in this submission. This grant, if awarded, will allow the PI to leverage his current efforts in, and facilities for, Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (NEMS) toward making important headway on the engineering and science of novel integrated systems (nanochips) for MRFM. When fully implemented, the magnetic resonance force microscope will become a unique scanned probe instrument offering the high spatial resolution of atomic force microscopy (AFM), while simultaneously offering three dimensional visualization capabilities of MRI within the engineering sciences it will enable new, high resolution studies of the microscopic subsurface properties for a broad range of new materials and electronic devices based upon buried interfaces. It is a technique that is both non-destructive and chemically specific.