1 research outputs found
Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy of paramagnetic electron spins at millikelvin temperatures
Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM) is a powerful technique to detect
a small number of spins that relies on force-detection by an ultrasoft
magnetically tipped cantilever and selective magnetic resonance manipulation of
the spins. MRFM would greatly benefit from ultralow temperature operation,
because of lower thermomechanical noise and increased thermal spin
polarization. Here, we demonstrate MRFM operation at temperatures as low as 30
mK, thanks to a recently developed SQUID-based cantilever detection technique
which avoids cantilever overheating. In our experiment, we detect dangling bond
paramagnetic centers on a silicon surface down to millikelvin temperatures.
Fluctuations of such kind of defects are supposedly linked to 1/f magnetic
noise and decoherence in SQUIDs as well as in several superconducting and
single spin qubits. We find evidence that spin diffusion plays a key role in
the low temperature spin dynamics.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure