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1. Optical and electronic spin properties of fluorescent micro- and nanodiamonds upon prolonged ultrahigh-temperature annealing

   https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0002797  

   Nunn, Nicholas; Milikisiyants, Sergey; Torelli, Marco D.; Monge, Richard; Delord, Tom; Shames, Alexander I.; Meriles, Carlos A.; Ajoy, Ashok; Smirnov, Alex I.; Shenderova, Olga A. (July 2023, Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B)

   High-temperature annealing is a promising but still mainly unexplored method for enhancing spin properties of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond particles. After high-energy irradiation, the formation of NV centers in diamond particles is typically accomplished via annealing at temperatures in the range of 800–900 °C for 1–2 h to promote vacancy diffusion. Here, we investigate the effects of conventional annealing (900 °C for 2 h) against annealing at a much higher temperature of 1600 °C for the same annealing duration for particles ranging in size from 100 nm to 15 μm using electron paramagnetic resonance and optical characterization. At this high temperature, the vacancy-assisted diffusion of nitrogen can occur. Previously, the annealing of diamond particles at this temperature was performed over short time scales because of concerns of particle graphitization. Our results demonstrate that particles that survive this prolonged 1600 °C annealing show increased NV T1 and T2 electron spin relaxation times in 1 and 15 μm particles, due to the removal of fast relaxing spins. Additionally, this high-temperature annealing also boosts magnetically induced fluorescence contrast of NV centers for particle sizes ranging from 100 nm to 15 μm. At the same time, the content of NV centers is decreased fewfold and reaches a level of <0.5 ppm. The results provide guidance for future studies and the optimization of high-temperature annealing of fluorescent diamond particles for applications relying on the spin properties of NV centers in the host crystals. 

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2. Metal−Organic Polyhedron with Four Fe(III) Centers Producing Enhanced T1 Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast in Tumors

   https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.1c03660  

   Gregory E. Sokolow, Matthew R. (January 2022, Inorganic chemistry)

   ABSTRACT: A metal organic polyhedron (MOP) with four paramagnetic Fe(III) centers was studied as a magnetic reso-nance imaging (MRI) probe. The MOP was characterized in solution by using EPR and UV-vis spectroscopies, FT-ICR mass spectrometry, and in the solid state with single crystal x-ray diffraction. Water proton T1 relaxation properties were examined in solution and showed significant enhancement in the presence of human serum albumin (HSA). The r1 relaxivities in the absence and presence of HSA were 8.7 mM-1s-1 and 21 mM-1s-1, respectively, per molecule (2.2 and 5.3 per Fe) at 4.7 T, 37 °C. In vivo studies of the iron MOP show strong contrast enhancement of blood pool even at a low dose of 0.025 mmol/kg with prolonged residence in vasculature and clearance through the intestinal tract of mice. The MOP binds strongly to serum albumin and shows comparable accumulation in a murine tumor model as a covalently linked Gd-HSA contrast agent. 

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3. Detection of electron paramagnetic resonance of two electron spins using a single NV center in diamond

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0224013  

   Ren, Yuhang; Takahashi, Susumu (November 2024, APL Quantum)

   An interacting spin system is an excellent testbed for fundamental quantum physics and applications in quantum sensing and quantum simulation. For these investigations, detailed information on the interactions, e.g., the number of spins and their interaction strengths, is often required. In this study, we present the identification and characterization of a single nitrogen vacancy (NV) center coupled to two electron spins. In the experiment, we first identify a well-isolated single NV center and characterize its spin decoherence time. Then, we perform NV-detected electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to detect surrounding electron spins. From the analysis of the NV-EPR signal, we precisely determine the number of detected spins and their interaction strengths. Moreover, the spectral analysis indicates that the candidates of the detected spins are diamond surface spins. This study demonstrates a promising approach for the identification and characterization of an interacting spin system for realizing entangled sensing using electron spin as quantum reporters. 

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4. Parallel pumping of magnons in inhomogeneous spin textures probed through NV spin relaxometry

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0192063  

   Trimble, J.; Gould, B.; Heremans, F_J; Zhang, S_S-L; Awschalom, D_D; Berezovsky, J. (February 2024, Journal of Applied Physics)

   We combine micromagnetic simulations and nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect center spin relaxometry measurements to study magnon modes in inhomogeneous spin textures. A thin, micrometer-scale ferromagnetic disk is magnetized in a vortex state in which the magnetization curls around a central core. Micromagnetic simulations show that at zero applied field, the magnetization dynamics of the disk consist of a low frequency gyrotropic mode and higher frequency azimuthal magnon modes, all far detuned from the NV spin transition frequencies. An in-plane static magnetic field breaks the azimuthal symmetry of the vortex state, resulting in the magnon modes transforming in frequency and spatial profile as the field increases. Experimentally, we probe the dynamics of vortex magnetization as a function of applied in-plane static field and ac driving frequency by optically monitoring a nearby NV defect center spin. At certain values of the applied magnetic field, we observe enhanced spin relaxation when driving at twice the frequency of the NV ground state spin transition in optically detected magnetic resonance measurements. We attribute this effect to parallel pumping of a magnon mode in the disk producing magnons at half the excitation frequency. Micromagnetic simulations support this finding, showing spatial and spectral overlap of a confined magnon mode and an NV spin transition, with sufficient interaction strength to explain the observed signal. 

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5. An iron ketimide single-molecule magnet [Fe ₄ (NCPh ₂ ) ₆ ] with suppressed through-barrier relaxation

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D0SC01578D  

   Cook, Andrew W.; Bocarsly, Joshua D.; Lewis, Richard A.; Touchton, Alexander J.; Morochnik, Simona; Hayton, Trevor W. (January 2020, Chemical Science)

   Reaction of FeBr 2 with 1.5 equiv. of LiNCPh 2 and 2 equiv. of Zn, in THF, results in the formation of the tetrametallic iron ketimide cluster [Fe 4 (NCPh 2 ) 6 ] ( 1 ) in moderate yield. Formally, two Fe centers in 1 are Fe( i ) and two are Fe( ii ); however, Mössbauer spectroscopy and SQUID magnetometry suggests that the [Fe 4 ] 6+ core of 1 exhibits complete valence electron delocalization, with a thermally-persistent spin ground state of S = 7. AC and DC SQUID magnetometry reveals the presence of slow magnetic relaxation in 1 , indicative of single-molecule magnetic (SMM) behaviour with a relaxation barrier of U eff = 29 cm −1 . Remarkably, very little quantum tunnelling or Raman relaxation is observed down to 1.8 K, which leads to an open hysteresis loop and long relaxation times (up to 34 s at 1.8 K and zero field and 440 s at 1.67 kOe). These results suggest that transition metal ketimide clusters represent a promising avenue to create long-lifetime single molecule magnets. 

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