Álvarez, Gonzalo A., Christian O. Bretschneider, Ran Fischer, Paz London, Hisao Kanda, Shinobu Onoda, Junichi Isoya, David Gershoni, and Lucio Frydman. “Local and Bulk 13C Hyperpolarization in Nitrogen-Vacancy-Centred Diamonds at Variable Fields and Orientations.” Nature Communications 6, no. 1 (September 25, 2015): 8456.
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9456.
Polarizing nuclear spins is of fundamental importance in biology, chemistry and physics. Methods for hyperpolarizing 13C nuclei from free electrons in bulk usually demand operation at cryogenic temperatures. Room temperature approaches targeting diamonds with nitrogen-vacancy centres could alleviate this need; however, hitherto proposed strategies lack generality as they demand stringent conditions on the strength and/or alignment of the magnetic field. We report here an approach for achieving efficient electron-13C spin-alignment transfers, compatible with a broad range of magnetic field strengths and field orientations with respect to the diamond crystal. This versatility results from combining coherent microwave- and incoherent laser-induced transitions between selected energy states of the coupled electron–nuclear spin manifold. 13C-detected nuclear magnetic resonance experiments demonstrate that this hyperpolarization can be transferred via first-shell or via distant 13Cs throughout the nuclear bulk ensemble. This method opens new perspectives for applications of diamond nitrogen-vacancy centres in nuclear magnetic resonance, and in quantum information processing.