Sensing single nuclear spins is a central challenge in magnetic resonance based imaging techniques. Although different methods and especially diamond defect based sensing and imaging techniques in principle have shown sufficient sensitivity, signals
from single nuclear spins are usually too weak to be distinguished from background noise. Here, we present the detection and identification of remote single C-13 nuclear spins embedded in nuclear spin baths surrounding a single electron spins of a nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond. With dynamical decoupling control of the centre electron spin, the weak magnetic field ~10 nT from a single nuclear spin located ~3 nm from the centre with hyperfine coupling as weak as ~500 Hz is amplified and detected. The quantum nature of the coupling is confirmed and precise position and the vector components of the nuclear field are determined. Given the distance over which nuclear magnetic fields can be detected the technique marks a firm step towards imaging, detecting and controlling nuclear spin species external to the diamond sensor.
We study the topological properties of quantum states for the spinless particle hopping in a Mobius ladder. This system can be regarded as a molecular device possibly engineered from the aromatic Mobius annulenes, which enjoys a pseudo-spin orbital i
nteraction described by a non-Abelian gauge structure. It results from the nontrivial topology of configuration space, and results in various observable effects, such as optical spectral splitting. The transmission spectrum through the Mobius molecular device is calculated to demonstrate a topological effect as a destructive interferences in the conduction band. The induced interaction also leads to an entanglement between the transverse and longitudinal modes for any locally factorized state.
We develop a quantum noise approach to study quantum transport through nanostructures. The nanostructures, such as quantum dots, are regarded as artificial atoms, subject to quasi-equilibrium fermionic reservoirs of electrons in biased leads. Noise o
perators characterizing the quantum fluctuation in the reservoirs are related to the damping and fluctuation of the artificial atoms through the quantum Langevin equation. The average current and current noise are derived in terms of the reservoir noise correlations. In the white-noise limit, we show that the current and current noise can be exactly calculated by the quantum noise approach, even in the presence of interaction such as Coulomb blockade. As a typical application, the average current and current noise through a single quantum dot are studied.
We propose and study a spin-orbit interaction based mechanism to actively cool down the torsional vibration of a nanomechanical resonator made by semiconductor materials. We show that the spin-orbit interactions of electrons can induce a coherent cou
pling between the electron spins and the torsional modes of nanomechanical vibration. This coherent coupling leads to an active cooling for the torsional modes via the dynamical thermalization of the resonator and the spin ensemble.
