Nanoscale nuclear magnetic resonance with chemical resolution

Abstract

NMR on diamonds gets down to chemistry Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is immensely useful for chemical characterization, but it requires relatively large amounts of sample. Recent studies have leveraged nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond to detect NMR signals from samples of just a few cubic nanometers, but with low resolution. Aslam et al. optimized this technique to achieve a resolution of 1 part per million—sufficient to distinguish among alkyl, vinyl, and aryl protons in solution (see the Perspective by Bar-Gill and Retzker). They also demonstrated solid-state implementation and fluorine detection. Science , this issue p. 67 ; see also p. 38