Effects of Thermal Oxidation and Proton Irradiation on Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance Sensitivity in Sub-100 nm Nanodiamonds
In recent decades, nanodiamonds (NDs) have emerged as innovative nanotools for weak magnetic fields and small temperature variation sensing, especially in biological systems. At the basis of the use of NDs as quantum sensors are nitrogen-vacancy center lattice defects, whose electronic structures are influenced by the surrounding environment and can be probed by the optically detected magnetic resonance technique. Ideally, limiting the NDs' size as much as possible is important to ensure higher biocompatibility and provide higher spatial resolution. However, size reduction typically worsens the NDs' sensing properties. This study endeavors to obtain sub-100 nm NDs suitable to be used as quantum sensors. Thermal processing and surface oxidations were performed to purify NDs and control their surface chemistry and size. Ion irradiation techniques were also employed to increase the concentration of the nitrogen-vacancy centers. The impact of these processes was explored in terms of surface chemistry (diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy), structural and optical properties (Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy), dimension variation (atomic force microscopy measurements), and optically detected magnetic resonance temperature sensitivity. Our results demonstrate how surface optimization and defect density enhancement can reduce the detrimental impact of size reduction, opening to the possibility of minimally invasive high-performance sensing of physical quantities in biological environments with nanoscale spatial resolution.
Authors
- R. Canteri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0895-8884)
- Federico Picollo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3179-271X)
- Marco Genovese (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9186-8849)
- Mario Barozzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1308-4261)
- Claudia Stella
- Veronica Varzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7609-1576)
- Nour-Hanne Amine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7065-7766)
- Adam Britel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0582-4784)
- Ivo Pietro Degiovanni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0332-3115)
- Sofia Sturari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7909-2715)
- P. Traina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3276-282X)
- P. Olivero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-6295)
- Pietro Aprà (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0973-3775)
- Ettore Bernardi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0397-7397)
- Lorenzo Mino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9882-8361)
- Ekaterina Moreva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6792-8386)
- G. Zanelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6406-1283)
- Elena Losero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9531-9695)
- Greta Andrini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8628-2592)
- Elisa Redolfi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9036-3144)
Institutions
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (IT)
- Politecnico di Torino (IT)
- Fondazione Bruno Kessler (IT)
- Torino e-district (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (IT)
- University of Turin (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
- Published
- 2025-03-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c08780
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.55
Funders
- European Partnership on Metrology
- Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca
- International Atomic Energy Agency
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
- H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions