Magnetic imaging is a powerful tool for probing biological and physical systems. However, existing techniques either have poor spatial resolution compared to optical microscopy and are hence not generally applicable to imaging of sub-cellular structure (e.g., magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]1), or entail operating conditions that preclude application to living biological samples while providing sub-micron resolution (e.g., scanning superconducting quantum interference device [SQUID] microscopy2, electron holography3, and magnetic resonance force microscopy [MRFM]4). Here we demonstrate magnetic imaging of living cells (magnetotactic bacteria) under ambient laboratory conditions and with sub-cellular spatial resolution (400 nm), using an optically-detected magnetic field imaging array consisting of a nanoscale layer of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) colour centres implanted at the surface of a diamond chip. With the bacteria placed on the diamond surface, we optically probe the NV quantum spin states and rapidly reconstruct images of the vector components of the magnetic field created by chains of magnetic nanoparticles (magnetosomes) produced in the bacteria, and spatially correlate these magnetic field maps with optical images acquired in the same apparatus. Wide-field sCMOS acquisition allows parallel optical and magnetic imaging of multiple cells in a population with sub-micron resolution and >100 micron field-of-view. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the bacteria confirm that the correlated optical and magnetic images can be used to locate and characterize the magnetosomes in each bacterium. The results provide a new capability for imaging bio-magnetic structures in living cells under ambient conditions with high spatial resolution, and will enable the mapping of a wide range of magnetic signals within cells and cellular networks5, 6.

Magnetic fields from neuronal action potentials (APs) pass largely unperturbed through biological tissue, allowing magnetic measurements of AP dynamics to be performed extracellularly or even outside intact organisms. To date, however, magnetic techniques for sensing neuronal activity have either operated at the macroscale with coarse spatial and/or temporal resolution—e.g., magnetic resonance imaging methods and magnetoencephalography—or been restricted to biophysics studies of excised neurons probed with cryogenic or bulky detectors that do not provide single-neuron spatial resolution and are not scalable to functional networks or intact organisms. Here, we show that AP magnetic sensing can be realized with both single-neuron sensitivity and intact organism applicability using optically probed nitrogen-vacancy (NV) quantum defects in diamond, operated under ambient conditions and with the NV diamond sensor in close proximity (∼10 µm) to the biological sample. We demonstrate this method for excised single neurons from marine worm and squid, and then exterior to intact, optically opaque marine worms for extended periods and with no observed adverse effect on the animal. NV diamond magnetometry is noninvasive and label-free and does not cause photodamage. The method provides precise measurement of AP waveforms from individual neurons, as well as magnetic field correlates of the AP conduction velocity, and directly determines the AP propagation direction through the inherent sensitivity of NVs to the associated AP magnetic field vector.

Quantum systems that consist of solid-state electronic spins can be sensitive detectors of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals, particularly from very small samples. For example, nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond have been used to record NMR signals from nanometre-scale samples, with sensitivity sufficient to detect the magnetic field produced by a single protein. However, the best reported spectral resolution for NMR of molecules using nitrogen-vacancy centres is about 100 hertz. This is insufficient to resolve the key spectral identifiers of molecular structure that are critical to NMR applications in chemistry, structural biology and materials research, such as scalar couplings (which require a resolution of less than ten hertz) and small chemical shifts (which require a resolution of around one part per million of the nuclear Larmor frequency). Conventional, inductively detected NMR can provide the necessary high spectral resolution, but its limited sensitivity typically requires millimetre-scale samples, precluding applications that involve smaller samples, such as picolitre-volume chemical analysis or correlated optical and NMR microscopy. Here we demonstrate a measurement technique that uses a solid-state spin sensor (a magnetometer) consisting of an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centres in combination with a narrowband synchronized readout protocol to obtain NMR spectral resolution of about one hertz. We use this technique to observe NMR scalar couplings in a micrometre-scale sample volume of approximately ten picolitres. We also use the ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centres to apply NMR to thermally polarized nuclear spins and resolve chemical-shift spectra from small molecules. Our technique enables analytical NMR spectroscopy at the scale of single cells.

No abstract

24 25 26Accepted Manuscript. This version has not undergone final editing. Please refer to the complete version of record at http://www.sciencemag.org/.2 Magnetic fields are proposed to have played a critical role in some of the most enigmatic 26 processes of planetary formation by mediating the rapid accretion of disk material onto the 27 central star and the formation of the first solids. However, there have been no direct 28 experimental constraints on these fields. Here we show that dusty olivine-bearing 29 chondrules from the Semarkona meteorite were magnetized in a nebular field of 54±21 µT. 30This intensity supports chondrule formation by nebular shocks or planetesimal collisions 31 rather than by electric currents, the x-wind, or other mechanisms near the sun. This 32 implies that background magnetic fields in the terrestrial planet-forming region were likely 33 5-54 µT, which is sufficient to account for measured rates of mass and angular momentum 34 transport in protoplanetary disks. 35 36Astronomical observations of young stellar objects indicate that early planetary systems 37 evolve through a protoplanetary disk phase in <5 million years (My) following the collapse of 38 their parent molecular clouds (1, 2). Disk evolution on such short timescales requires highly 39 efficient inward transport of mass accompanied by outward angular momentum transfer, which 40 allows disk material to accrete onto the central star while delivering angular momentum out of 41 the protoplanetary system. 42The mechanism of this rapid mass and angular momentum redistribution remains unknown. 43Several proposed processes invoke a central role for nebular magnetic fields. Among these, the 44 magnetorotational instability (MRI) and magnetic braking predict magnetic fields with intensities 45 of ~100 µT at 1 AU in the active layers of the disk (3, 4). Alternatively, transport by 46 magnetocentrifugal wind (MCW) requires large-scale, ordered magnetic fields stronger than ~10 47 µT at 1 AU. Finally, non-magnetic effects such as the baroclinic and Goldreich-Schubert-Fricke 48 instabilities may be the dominant mechanism of angular momentum transport in the absence of 49 sufficiently strong magnetic fields (5). Direct measurement of magnetic fields in the planet-50 forming regions of the disk can potentially distinguish among and constrain these hypothesized 51 mechanisms. 52Although current astronomical observations cannot directly measure magnetic fields in 53 planet-forming regions [(6); supplementary text], paleomagnetic experiments on meteoritic 54 materials can potentially constrain the strength of nebular magnetic fields. Chondrules are 55 millimeter-sized lithic constituents of primitive meteorites that formed in transient heating events 56 in the solar nebula. If a stable field was present during cooling, they should have acquired a 57 thermoremanent magnetization (TRM), which can be characterized via paleomagnetic 58 experiments. Besides assessing the role of magnetic fields in disk evolution, such paleomagnetic 59 measure...

We demonstrate a scheme for optical cycling in the polar, diatomic molecule strontium monofluoride (SrF) using the X 2 Σ + → A 2 Π 1/2 electronic transition. SrF's highly diagonal Franck-Condon factors suppress vibrational branching. We eliminate rotational branching by employing a quasicycling N = 1 → N ′ = 0 type transition in conjunction with magnetic field remixing of dark Zeeman sublevels. We observe cycling fluorescence and deflection through radiative force of an SrF molecular beam using this scheme. With straightforward improvements our scheme promises to allow more than 10 5 photon scatters, possibly enabling the direct laser cooling of SrF. [5,6,7], as qubits in a quantum computer [8], and for studying ultracold chemistry [9,10]. Currently the best technique for creating ultracold molecules relies on their assembly from preexisting ultracold atoms [11,12], and recent experiments have produced ground state polar molecules near quantum degeneracy [12]. Unfortunately only bialkali molecules have been produced this way and the number of molecules created is fairly small (∼ 10 4 ) [12]. There is substantial interest in developing techniques for direct cooling of molecules, enabling use of species with different structures (e.g. unpaired electron spins, which are important for several proposed applications [2, 4, 6, 13]), and possibly also much larger samples. Molecules have been directly cooled using a cryogenic buffer gas [14] or via supersonic expansion followed by beam deceleration [15], but so far the temperature reached with these techniques is limited to ∼ 10 mK.The prospect of direct laser cooling of molecules is attractive because large numbers could in principle be obtained for new types of species at ultracold temperatures. Unfortunately, molecules possess rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom resulting in decays to unwanted sublevels, so finding the closed cycling transitions required for laser cooling is a challenge. However, recent proposals have shown that certain molecules may be amenable to laser cooling because their Franck-Condon factors (FCFs) suppress decays to excited vibrational states [16,17]. Furthermore Stuhl et al. pointed out that a F = 1 → F ′ = 0 type transition eliminates decays to all but the initial F = 1 state [17]. (We use N , v, I, S, F , M , and P as the rotational, vibrational, nuclear spin, electronic spin, total angular momentum, Zeeman, and parity quantum numbers respectively.) In this scheme dark Zeeman levels in the ground state must be remixed to obtain optical cycling [17,18]. Here we propose and demonstrate a scheme for optical cycling that uses the X 2 Σ + 1/2 → A 2 Π 1/2 electronic transition in the molecule SrF. This transition has the required highly diagonal FCFs. Use of a P branch N = 1 → N ′ = 0 type rotational transition eliminates rotational branching, while a magnetic field remixes the dark Zeeman sublevels. The X(N = 1) state of SrF has four hyperfine structure (HFS) levels, so we outline a technique for simultaneously addressing all of these ...

We demonstrate and characterize a high-flux beam source for cold, slow atoms or molecules. The desired species is vaporized using laser ablation, then cooled by thermalization in a cryogenic cell of buffer gas. The beam is formed by particles exiting a hole in the buffer gas cell. We characterize the properties of the beam (flux, forward velocity, temperature) for both an atom (Na) and a molecule (PbO) under varying buffer gas density, and discuss conditions for optimizing these beam parameters. Our source compares favorably to existing techniques of beam formation, for a variety of applications.

Remanent magnetization in geological samples may record the past intensity and direction of planetary magnetic fields. Traditionally, this magnetization is analyzed through measurements of the net magnetic moment of bulk millimeter to centimeter sized samples. However, geological samples are often mineralogically and texturally heterogeneous at submillimeter scales, with only a fraction of the ferromagnetic grains carrying the remanent magnetization of interest. Therefore, characterizing this magnetization in such cases requires a technique capable of imaging magnetic fields at fine spatial scales and with high sensitivity. To address this challenge, we developed a new instrument, based on nitrogen‐vacancy centers in diamond, which enables direct imaging of magnetic fields due to both remanent and induced magnetization, as well as optical imaging, of room‐temperature geological samples with spatial resolution approaching the optical diffraction limit. We describe the operating principles of this device, which we call the quantum diamond microscope (QDM), and report its optimized image‐area‐normalized magnetic field sensitivity (20 µT⋅µm/Hz1/2), spatial resolution (5 µm), and field of view (4 mm), as well as trade‐offs between these parameters. We also perform an absolute magnetic field calibration for the device in different modes of operation, including three‐axis (vector) and single‐axis (projective) magnetic field imaging. Finally, we use the QDM to obtain magnetic images of several terrestrial and meteoritic rock samples, demonstrating its ability to resolve spatially distinct populations of ferromagnetic carriers.