Broadband radio-frequency transmitter for fast nuclear spin control

Abstract

The active manipulation of nuclear spins with radio-frequency (RF) coils is at the heart of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and spin-based quantum devices. Here, we present a miniature RF transmitter designed to generate strong RF pulses over a broad bandwidth, allowing for fast spin rotations on arbitrary nuclear species. Our design incorporates (i) a planar multilayer geometry that generates a large field of 4.35 mT per unit current, (ii) a 50 ω transmission circuit with a broad excitation bandwidth of ∼20 MHz, and (iii) an optimized thermal management leading to minimal heating at the sample location. Using individual 13C nuclear spins in the vicinity of a diamond nitrogen-vacancy center as a test system, we demonstrate Rabi frequencies exceeding 70 kHz and nuclear π/2 rotations within 3.4 μs. The extrapolated values for 1H spins are about 240 kHz and 1 μs, respectively. Beyond enabling fast nuclear spin manipulations, our transmitter system is ideally suited for the incorporation of advanced pulse sequences into micro- and nanoscale NMR detectors operating at a low (<1 T) magnetic field.