A quantum sensor for atomic-scale electric and magnetic fields

Authors: T. Esat, D. Borodin, J. Oh, A. J. Heinrich, F. S. Tautz, Y. Bae and R. Temirov

Nature Nanotechnology 19, 1466–1471 - Published: 25. July 2024

Abstract: The detection of faint magnetic fields from single-electron and nuclear spins at the atomic scale is a long-standing challenge in physics. While current mobile quantum sensors achieve single-electron spin sensitivity, atomic spatial resolution remains elusive for existing techniques. Here we fabricate a single-molecule quantum sensor at the apex of the metallic tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope by attaching Fe atoms and a PTCDA (3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic-dianhydride) molecule to the tip apex. We address the molecular spin by electron spin resonance and achieve ~100 neV resolution in energy. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we measure the magnetic and electric dipole fields emanating from a single Fe atom and an Ag dimer on an Ag(111) surface with sub-angstrom spatial resolution. Our method enables atomic-scale quantum sensing experiments of electric and magnetic fields on conducting surfaces and may find applications in the sensing of spin-labelled biomolecules and of spin textures in quantum materials.

A quantum sensor for atomic-scale electric and magnetic fields — We have developed a quantum sensor that can measure the magnetic and electric dipole fields emanating from single atoms with single-spin sensitivity and sub-ångstrom spatial resolution, improving the spatial resolution of existing sensors by at least an order of magnitude.

Contact

Dr. Taner Esat

Group leader at Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI-3)

Building 02.4w /
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Last Modified: 13.02.2026