High-Resolution, Ultra-Sensitive Magnetic Imaging Using an Ensemble of Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) Centers in Diamond.

摘要

Imaging of weak magnetic fields at ambient temperatures and pressures with submicron spatial resolution and wide field of view is an outstanding challenge of great importance in both the physical and life sciences. A robust instrument able to image such magnetic fields will have wide- ranging and far-reaching applications in science and technology, including: minimally-invasive imaging of functional activity and magnetic structures in living cells; imaging and detection of magnetically-labeled cells and sub- cellular structures; non-destructive imaging of integrated circuits and stress in metallic joints; and probing magnetic order and domain structure in low- dimensional systems such as graphene, antiferromagnetic and multiferroic materials. To enable development in these areas, there is a need for a general- purpose instrument platform for magnetic field imaging with diamond. Quantum Diamond Technologies Inc. (QDTI) made significant progress in Phase I of this SBIR effort toward developing such a platform. Additionally, QDTI demonstrated the feasibility for a powerful new application of diamond magnetic imaging: rapid detection of rare biological targets in blood and other biofluids. One target in particular, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the bloodstream, has been clinically correlated with cancer progression. CTCs are thought to play an important role in seeding of metastatic tumor sites, a process that dramatically increases patient mortality. However, CTC diagnostic technology is lacking; existing tools are expensive, slow, insufficiently sensitive, and cumbersome for clinicians and researchers. Diamond magnetic imaging has the capability to excel where these tools fall short, by combining high-fidelity magnetic detection of magnetically-labeled cells with high-throughput, wide-field diamond magnetic imaging.