Microwave-Free ^13C Hyperpolarization of Diamond Particles Enabled by Magic Angle Spinning and NV Centers

Abstract

Nuclear hyperpolarization from optically pumped color centers in solids offers an alternative to conventional microwave-driven dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). Diamond can host the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center, whose ground spin state can be readily polarized by light at room temperature, making diamond a candidate platform for nuclear hyperpolarization. We report ¹³C nuclear hyperpolarization in randomly oriented diamond particles with sizes ranging from 0.2 to 2 μm, both at natural ¹³C abundance (1.1 %) and at 20 % isotopic enrichment, at magnetic fields of 7.1 T and 9.4 T. The protocol combines optical illumination with magic angle spinning (MAS) and does not require microwave irradiation. By investigating the nuclear polarization as a function of the MAS frequency between 0 and 6 kHz at the magnetic field of 7.1 T, we find maximum light-induced polarization enhancements of $280$-fold for the isotopically enriched sample and $411$-fold for the natural abundance sample. Under continuous illumination, steady-state absolute ¹³C polarization levels above 0.1 % are reached. A model involving optical pumping of NV centers and spin dynamics near level anticrossings (LACs) in three-spin clusters formed by NV, a substitutional nitrogen (P1) and ¹³C is used to describe these findings. The protocol strongly mitigates the effect of the anisotropy of the NV spin Hamiltonian, allowing more than 99.9% of NV orientations to participate in the polarization transfer process. These results represent a first step toward transferring nuclear polarization from diamond particles to external nuclei, with potential applications in sensitive and high-resolution NMR at room temperature.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{blinder2026microwavefree,
  title = {{Microwave-Free $^13$C Hyperpolarization of Diamond Particles Enabled by Magic Angle Spinning and NV Centers}},
  author = {Rémi Blinder and Guzel Musabirova and Daehee Kim and Anshuman Nayak and Jason Twamley and Viateschlav N. Agafonov and Raiker Witter and Jörg Matysik and Fedor Jelezko},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.07653},
  eprint = {2609.07653},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.07653},
  note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Microwave-Free ^13C Hyperpolarization of Diamond Particles Enabled by Magic Angle Spinning and NV Centers
AU  - Rémi Blinder
AU  - Guzel Musabirova
AU  - Daehee Kim
AU  - Anshuman Nayak
AU  - Jason Twamley
AU  - Viateschlav N. Agafonov
AU  - Raiker Witter
AU  - Jörg Matysik
AU  - Fedor Jelezko
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/07
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.07653
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.07653
AB  - Nuclear hyperpolarization from optically pumped color centers in solids offers an alternative to conventional microwave-driven dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). Diamond can host the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center, whose ground spin state can be readily polarized by light at room temperature, making diamond a candidate platform for nuclear hyperpolarization. We report ^13C nuclear hyperpolarization in randomly oriented diamond particles with sizes ranging from 0.2 to 2 μm, both at natural ^13C abundance (1.1 %) and at 20 % isotopic enrichment, at magnetic fields of 7.1 T and 9.4 T. The protocol combines optical illumination with magic angle spinning (MAS) and does not require microwave irradiation. By investigating the nuclear polarization as a function of the MAS frequency between 0 and 6 kHz at the magnetic field of 7.1 T, we find maximum light-induced polarization enhancements of $280$-fold for the isotopically enriched sample and $411$-fold for the natural abundance sample. Under continuous illumination, steady-state absolute ^13C polarization levels above 0.1 % are reached. A model involving optical pumping of NV centers and spin dynamics near level anticrossings (LACs) in three-spin clusters formed by NV, a substitutional nitrogen (P1) and ^13C is used to describe these findings. The protocol strongly mitigates the effect of the anisotropy of the NV spin Hamiltonian, allowing more than 99.9% of NV orientations to participate in the polarization transfer process. These results represent a first step toward transferring nuclear polarization from diamond particles to external nuclei, with potential applications in sensitive and high-resolution NMR at room temperature.
ER  -

Microwave-Free ¹³C Hyperpolarization of Diamond Particles Enabled by Magic Angle Spinning and NV Centers

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