@article {3230, title = {Two-Electron-Spin Ratchets as a Platform for Microwave-Free Dynamic Nuclear Polarization of Arbitrary Material Targets}, journal = {Nano Letters}, year = {2019}, month = {03/2019}, abstract = {

Optically pumped color centers in semiconductor powders can potentially induce high levels of nuclear spin polarization in surrounding solids or fluids at or near ambient conditions, but complications stemming from the random orientation of the particles and the presence of unpolarized paramagnetic defects hinder the flow of polarization beyond the defect\’s host material. Here, we theoretically study the spin dynamics of interacting nitrogen-vacancy (NV) and substitutional nitrogen (P1) centers in diamond to show that outside protons spin-polarize efficiently upon a magnetic field sweep across the NV\–P1 level anticrossing. The process can be interpreted in terms of an NV\–P1 spin ratchet, whose handedness, and hence the sign of the resulting nuclear polarization, depends on the relative timing of the optical excitation pulse. Further, we find that the polarization transfer mechanism is robust to NV misalignment relative to the external magnetic field, and efficient over a broad range of electron\–electron and electron\–nuclear spin couplings, even if proxy spins feature short coherence or spin\–lattice relaxation times. Therefore, these results pave the route toward the dynamic nuclear polarization of arbitrary spin targets brought in proximity with a diamond powder under ambient conditions.

}, doi = {10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b05114}, url = {https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b05114}, author = {Pablo R. Zangara and J. Henshaw and Daniela Pagliero and Ashok Ajoy and Jeffrey A. Reimer and Alexander Pines and Carlos A. Meriles} } @article {2980, title = {Enhanced dynamic nuclear polarization via swept microwave frequency combs}, journal = {Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci}, year = {2018}, month = {10/2018}, abstract = {

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) has enabled enormous gains in magnetic resonance signals and led to vastly accelerated NMR/MRI imaging and spectroscopy. Unlike conventional cw-techniques, DNP methods that exploit the full electron spectrum are appealing since they allow direct participation of all electrons in the hyperpolarization process. Such methods typically entail sweeps of microwave radiation over the broad electron linewidth to excite DNP but are often inefficient because the sweeps, constrained by adiabaticity requirements, are slow. In this paper, we develop a technique to overcome the DNP bottlenecks set by the slow sweeps, using a swept microwave frequency comb that increases the effective number of polarization transfer events while respecting adiabaticity constraints. This allows a multiplicative gain in DNP enhancement, scaling with the number of comb frequencies and limited only by the hyperfine-mediated electron linewidth. We demonstrate the technique for the optical hyperpolarization of 13C nuclei in powdered microdiamonds at low fields, increasing the DNP enhancement from 30 to 100 measured with respect to the thermal signal at 7T. For low concentrations of broad linewidth electron radicals [e.g., TEMPO ((2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl)], these multiplicative gains could exceed an order of magnitude.

}, doi = {1807125115}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807125115}, author = {Ashok Ajoy and Kristina Liu and Xudong Lv and Raffi Nazaryan and G.Wang and E . Druga and Jeff Reimer and Ditter Suter and C. Ramanathan and C.A Meriles and Alexander Pines} } @article {2979, title = {Orientation independent room-temperature optical 13C hyperpolarization in powdered diamond}, journal = {Science Advances}, volume = {4}, year = {2018}, month = {05/2018}, abstract = {

Dynamic nuclear polarization via contact with electronic spins has emerged as an attractive route to enhance the sensitivity of nuclear magnetic resonance beyond the traditional limits imposed by magnetic field strength and temperature. Among the various alternative implementations, the use of nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond\—a paramagnetic point defect whose spin can be optically polarized at room temperature\—has attracted widespread attention, but applications have been hampered by the need to align the NV axis with the external magnetic field. We overcome this hurdle through the combined use of continuous optical illumination and a microwave sweep over a broad frequency range. As a proof of principle, we demonstrate our approach using powdered diamond with which we attain bulk 13C spin polarization in excess of 0.25\% under ambient conditions. Remarkably, our technique acts efficiently on diamond crystals of all orientations and polarizes nuclear spins with a sign that depends exclusively on the direction of the microwave sweep. Our work paves the way toward the use of hyperpolarized diamond particles as imaging contrast agents for biosensing and, ultimately, for the hyperpolarization
of nuclear spins in arbitrary liquids brought in contact with their surface.

}, doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aar5492 }, url = {http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/5/eaar5492}, author = {Ashok Ajoy and Kristina Liu and Raff Nazaryan and Xudong Lv and Pablo R. Zangara and Benjamin Safvati and Guoqing Wang and Daniel Arnold and Grace Li and Arthur Lin and Priyanka Raghavan and Emanuel Druga and Siddharth Dhomkar and Daniela Pagliero and Jeffrey A. Reimer and Dieter Suter and Carlos A. Meriles and Alexander Pines} }