Project description
Scalable magnetic sensors for biomedical applications
Nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond have emerged as promising quantum sensors for applications including magneto-optical imaging, thermometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. However, there are certain challenges that prevent diamond-based quantum sensor integration on a silicon chip. To this end, the EU-funded QSENS-NMR project aims to leverage silicon vacancy defects in 4H-silicon carbide (4H-SiC). Using established wafer bonding techniques of 6 inch 4H-SiC and silicon dioxide on silicon wafers, QSENS-NMR will demonstrate a CMOS-compatible approach to waveguide fabrication. Shallow silicon vacancy defects will be implanted using scalable focused ion beam. Project results could have far-reaching implications in biomedicine. Thousands of nuclear magnetic sensors integrated on a single chip could be used as a scalable tool for diagnosing cancer or viruses.
Objective
Quantum enhanced magnetometers (QEM) based on nitrogen vacancy centres in diamond provide nanoscale spatial resolution and single atom sensitivity that can achieve magneto-optical imaging, thermometry and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of individual molecules. These have implications in various areas of fundamental science, biomedicine and information storage. One goal of QSENS-NMR is to solve the main challenges which prevent diamond to integrate and scale up thousands of QEM's on a single chip. These consider: challenging diamond waveguide fabrication, incompatibility with the Complementary-Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) industry, scalability and commercialisation limitation given by the expensive, time consuming material growth and wafer size of diamond. QSENS-NMR aims to solve these issues by utilising Silicon Vacancy (SiV) defects in 4H-Silicon carbide (4H-SiC) material. Thanks to wafer bonding pieces from 6 inch 4H-SiC and Silicon Dioxide on Silicon wafers, QSENS-NMR will demonstrate waveguide fabrication in a CMOS compatible manner where shallow SiV defects will be implanted using scalable Focus Ion Beam. In such configuration, light can be easily coupled to simultaneously excite multiple defects. Additional fabrication of gold contacts will demonstrate the first on chip spin control and photoelectrical spin readout (PDMR) of single colour centers in SiC. The second goal of QSENS-NMR is to utilise the opportunity to manipulate and measure spin states in order to demonstrate the first submiliHertz NMR spectroscopy with SiC colour centres. By integrating simple, microfluidic channels, multiple samples of water can be delivered to various spatial locations of the chip where high resolution NMR measurements will be achieved using the Quantum Homodyne technique. QSENS-NMR thus paves the way to one day possibly scale up to thousands of NMR sensors on a single chip which can be used as a scalable diagnostic tool for cancer or viral research.
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
89081 Ulm
Germany