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arXiv:2206.15164 · Communications Physics

Magnetometry of neurons using a superconducting qubit

Hiraku Toida, Koji Sakai, Tetsuhiko Teshima, Masahiro Hori, Kosuke Kakuyanagi, Imran Mahboob, Ono Yukinori, Shiro Saito

Published Feb 6, 2023• 9 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Iron plays important physiological and pathological roles in the human body. However, microscopic analysis including redox status by a conventional electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometer is difficult due to limited spatial resolution and sensitivity. Here we demonstrate magnetometry of cultured neurons on a polymeric film using a superconducting flux qubit that works as a sensitive magnetometer in a microscale area towards realizing ESR spectroscopy. By changing temperature (12.5–200 mK) and a magnetic field (2.5–12.5 mT), we observe a clear magnetization signal from the neurons that is well above the control magnetometry of the polymeric film itself. From ESR spectrum measured at 10 K, the magnetization signal is identified to originate from electron spins of iron ions in neurons. This technique to detect a bio-spin system can be extended to achieve ESR spectroscopy at the single-cell level, which will give the spectroscopic fingerprint of cells.

DOI
10.1038/s42005-023-01133-z

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Abstract Iron plays important physiological and pathological roles in the human body. However, microscopic analysis including redox status by a conventional electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometer is difficult due to limited spatial resolution and sensitivity. Here we demonstrate magnetometry of cultured neurons on a polymeric film using a superconducting flux qubit that works as a sensitive magnetometer in a microscale area towards realizing ESR spectroscopy. By changing temperature (12.5–200 mK) and a magnetic field (2.5–12.5 mT), we observe a clear magnetization signal from the neurons that is well above the control magnetometry of the polymeric film itself. From ESR spectrum measured at 10 K, the magnetization signal is identified to originate from electron spins of iron ions in neurons. This technique to detect a bio-spin system can be extended to achieve ESR spectroscopy at the single-cell level, which will give the spectroscopic fingerprint of cells.
We use a superconducting flux qubit for the sensing application of electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy.The superconducting flux qubit is a highly sensitive magnetometer with micrometer-scale spatial resolution.The sensitivity of our spectrometer is 400 spins/√Hz, and the sensing volume is 0.05 pL.This high sensitivity and high spatial resolution enable us to investigate a small number of electron spins in a microscale area.The spectrometer also obtains a wider ESR spectrum range with twoparameter (frequency and magnetic field) scanning.This enables us to refine the material parameters.
Abstract Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is an important technology in physics, chemistry, materials science, and biology. Sensitive detection with a small sample volume is a key objective in these areas, because it is crucial, for example, for the readout of a highly packed spin based quantum memory or the detection of transition metals in biomaterials. Here, we demonstrate a novel EPR spectrometer using a single artificial atom as a sensitive detector of spin magnetization. The artificial atom, a superconducting flux qubit, provides advantages in terms of its strong coupling with magnetic fields. We estimate a sensitivity of ~400 spins·Hz−1/2 with a magnetic sensing volume around 10−14λ3 (50 femtoliters), where λ is the wavelength of the irradiated microwave. Our artificial atom works as a highly sensitive EPR spectrometer with micron-scale area with future opportunity for measuring single spins on the nanometer scale.
Superconducting circuits are promising components for future quantum information technologies such as quantum computing, quantum simulation, and quantum sensing. Superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) and superconducting flux qubits can be used as a sensitive magnetic field sensor to detect local electron spin resonance (ESR). These types of sensor are characterized by good sensitivity and high spatial resolution for electron spins. In fact, we have achieved a sensitivity of 20 spins/Hz\sqrt{\text {Hz}}Hz​ with a sensing volume of 6 fl combining a flux qubit and qubit readout using a Josephson bifurcation amplifier. As a demonstration, we measured the ESR spectrum of erbium electron spins in a Y2_{2}2​SiO5_{5}5​ crystal and nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond. In both cases, we obtained reasonable electron spin parameters by fitting a simulation to the spectrum. In this way, we proved superconducting circuits to be promising magnetic field sensors for evaluating the properties of solid materials.
Electron spin resonance (ESR) is a powerful spectroscopy method which allows to identify and characterize paramagnetic species. It usually relies on detecting microwave radiation absorbed or emitted by the spins into a microwave resonator tuned to their Larmor precession frequency. Because of the weak spin-microwave coupling, conventional ESR spectroscopy has a low sensitivity. Recent experiments have demonstrated that superconducting quantum circuits have the potential to enhance the spin detection sensitivity to single spin detection; by namely using high quality factor small mode volume resonator. However, these demonstrations have been realized in very restrictive conditions, using well-known spin systems. To probe samples coming from chemistry or biology, quantum-circuit enabled spectrometers have to be adapted to be robust to losses. They have typically two origins: the dielectric losses introduced by the samples, mostly aqueous, and losses coming from the strong magnetic field required to tune the electronic spins to the resonator frequency. This PhD work centered on implementing a resonator that would achieve the same ESR sensitivity while being robust to dielectric losses and strong magnetic fields. Using NbTiN films deposited on sapphire, microwave resonators were shown to have quality factors above Q=105 in magnetic field, even when samples with dielectric losses above tan d > 0.05 were introduced. A study of the resonator intrinsic losses showed marked drops at multiple specific magnetic fields: a signature of coupling to spurious systems. Over the course of the PhD, mitigation nanofabrication techniques for these contaminants were developed, such as hard mask etching and annealing, to remove all but one of this contaminants. Finally, test of the spectrometer on a benchmark species (BDPA, α,γ-Bisdiphenylene-β-phenylallyl, a known ESR marker) were realized.
A new method for detecting the magnetic resonance of electronic spins at low temperature is demonstrated. It consists in measuring the signal emitted by the spins with a superconducting qubit that acts as a single-microwave-photon detector, resulting in an enhanced sensitivity. We implement such an electron-spin resonance spectrometer using a hybrid quantum circuit in which a transmon qubit is coupled to a spin ensemble consisting of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. With this setup we measure the NV center absorption spectrum at 30 mK at an excitation level of $\ensuremath{\sim}15\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{B}$ out of an ensemble of 1011{10}^{11}1011 spins.
Abstract Interest is growing in the development of quantum sensing based on the principles of quantum mechanics, such as discrete energy levels, quantum superposition, and quantum entanglement. Superconducting flux qubits are quantum two-level systems whose energy is sensitive to a magnetic field. Therefore, they can be used as high-sensitivity magnetic field sensors that detect the magnetization of a spin ensemble. Since the magnetization depends on temperature and the magnetic field, the temperature can be determined by measuring the magnetization using the flux qubit. In this study, we demonstrated highly sensitive temperature sensing with high spatial resolution as an application of a magnetic field sensor using the quantum coherence of a superconducting flux qubit. By using a superconducting flux qubit to detect the temperature dependence of the polarization ratio of electron spins in nano-diamond particles, we succeeded in measuring the temperature with a sensitivity of 1.3 µKµ Hz − 1 at T = 9.1 mK in the submicrometer range.