Microscopy enables detailed visualization and understanding of minute structures or processes. While cameras have significantly advanced optical, infrared, and electron microscopy, imaging nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals on a camera has remained elusive. Here, we employ nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond as a quantum sensor, which converts NMR signals into optical signals that are subsequently captured by a high-speed camera. Unlike traditional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), our method records the NMR signal over a wide field of view in real space. We demonstrate that our optical widefield NMR microscopy (OMRM) can image NMR signals in microfluidic structures with a ∼10μm resolution across a ∼235×150μm2 area. Crucially, each camera pixel records an NMR spectrum providing multicomponent information about the signal's amplitude, phase, local magnetic field strengths, and gradients. The fusion of optical microscopy and NMR techniques enables multifaceted imaging applications in the physical and life sciences.
@article{arxiv.2402.18239,
title = {Optical Widefield Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy},
author = {Karl D. Briegel and Nick R. von Grafenstein and Julia C. Draeger and Peter Blümler and Robin D. Allert and Dominik B. Bucher},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.18239},
year = {2025}
}