RAISE-TAQS: Quantum-based chemical sensing

该项目的目标是探索化学传感和分析的新方法。这种方法基于电子的一种称为自旋的量子力学性质。金刚石样品中含有一种特殊的缺陷，氮空位(NV)中心。钻石中的一个碳原子被空位附近的氮原子取代。这种样品的发光方式会随着附近分子上自旋的存在而改变。在这个项目中，化学家、物理学家和电气工程师正在合作，通过在钻石表面下非常特定的位置放置一系列NV中心来制作钻石样品。然后，他们研究了NV中心发出的光是如何取决于位于钻石样品外的分子的位置和距离的。由于目前还不存在基于自旋的化学传感器，这项工作有可能导致具有非常高灵敏度的新型化学传感器，可能是在单分子水平上。如果成功，基于自旋的化学传感器将在广泛的化学、环境和生物医学应用中发挥作用。除了对研究生和本科生进行量子科学方面的培训外，研究团队还参与了推广活动和开发基于量子化学检测的公众友好播客。研究的目标是通过利用钻石中NV中心的独特量子力学特性，从根本上探索检测和测量分子结合、切割和表面动力学运动的新方法。新的传感方法是基于表征NV中心的电子自旋如何与位于钻石-水界面附近的分子中的自旋相互作用。纳米光刻图案化和离子注入方法被用来制备包含NV中心阵列的样品，每个NV中心阵列都可以单独探测和操纵。纳米光子方法正被用来提供将来自各个NV中心的光光学耦合到光学探测器的有效方法。钻石表面正在被含有定义良好的自旋探测器的分子功能化，该分子以取决于自旋探测器和NV中心之间的接近程度的方式与次表面NV中心相互作用。研究人员正在利用分子的自旋和NV中心的自旋之间的相互作用作为一种潜在的新的化学传感方法，其中通过NV中心的光谱变化来报告表面分子的结合或释放。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this project is to explore novel approaches to chemical sensing and analysis. This approach based on a quantum-mechanical property of electrons known as spin. Diamond samples containing a special defect, the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center. One of the carbon atoms in the diamond is replaced by a nitrogen atom adjacent to a vacancy. Such samples emit light in a way that is altered by the presence of spins on nearby molecules. In this project, chemists, physicists, and electrical engineers are collaborating to make diamond samples with arrays of NV centers placed at very specific locations beneath diamond surfaces. They then investigate how the light emitted by the NV centers depends on the location and distance of molecules located immediately outside of the diamond sample. Because spin-based chemical sensors do not currently exist, this work has the potential to lead to new types of chemical sensors with very high sensitivity, possibly at the single-molecule level. If successful, spin-based chemical sensors would be useful in a wide range of chemical, environmental and biomedical applications. In addition to training graduate and undergraduate students in the quantum-based science, the researcher team is also engaged with outreach events and development of public-friendly podcast on quantum-based chemical detection.The goal of the research is to explore fundamentally new approaches to detecting and measuringmolecular binding, cleavage, and dynamical motions at surfaces by exploiting the unique quantum mechanical properties of NV centers in diamond. The new sensing approach is based on characterizinghow electron spins of NV centers interact with spins present in molecules located nearby at the diamond-water interface. Nanolithographic patterning and ion implantation methods are being used to prepare samples containing arrays of NV centers, each of which can be probed and manipulated individually. Nanophotonic methods are being used to provide efficient ways of optically coupling light from individual NV centers to optical detectors. The diamond surfaces are being functionalized with molecules containing well defined spin probes that interact with the sub-surface NV centers in a manner that depends on the proximity between the spin probe and the NV centers. Researchers are using the resulting interactions between the spin of the molecules and the spin of the NV centers as a potentially novel approach to chemical sensing in which binding or release of molecules from surfaces is reported via spectroscopic changes in the NV centers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.