All-microwave spectroscopy and polarization of individual nuclear spins in a solid.

Abstract

Pushing the sensitivity of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to the single spin level would have a major impact in chemistry and biology and is the goal of intense research efforts. We report magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurements of individual nuclear spins in a crystal coupled to a neighboring paramagnetic center, detected using microwave fluorescence at millikelvin temperatures. We observe real-time quantum jumps of the nuclear spin state, a proof of their individual nature. By driving the forbidden transitions of the coupled electron-nuclear spin system, we also achieve single-spin solid-effect dynamical nuclear polarization. Relying exclusively on microwave driving and microwave photon counting, the methods reported here are, in principle, applicable to a large number of electron-nuclear spin systems, in a wide variety of samples.