Nuclear magnetic resonance diffraction with subangstrom precision br

We have combined ultrasensitive force-based spin detection with high-fidelity spin control to achieve NMR diffraction (NMRd) measurement of similar to 2 million 31P spins in a (50 nm)(3) volume of an indium-phosphide (InP) nanowire. NMRd is a technique originally proposed for studying the structure of periodic arrangements of spins, with complete access to the spectroscopic capabilities of NMR. We describe two experiments that realize NMRd detection with subangstrom precision. In the first experiment, we encode a nanometer-scale spatial modulation of the z -axis magnetization of P-31 spins and detect the period and position of the modulation with a precision of <0.8 angstrom. In the second experiment, we demonstrate an interferometric technique, utilizing NMRd, to detect an angstrom-scale displacement of the InP sample with a precision of 0.07 angstrom. The diffraction-based techniques developed in this work extend the Fourier-encoding capabilities of NMR to the angstrom scale and demonstrate the potential of NMRd as a tool for probing the structure and dynamics of nanocrystalline materials.

Automated summary

This article combines ultrasensitive force-based spin detection with high-fidelity spin control to achieve NMR diffraction measurement of millions of 31P spins in a nanowire. The experiments demonstrate subangstrom precision in detecting spatial modulation of spins and angstrom-scale displacement of the sample. The diffraction-based techniques extend the capabilities of NMR to the angstrom scale and show the potential of NMRd in probing nanocrystalline materials.