Distance measurements via the dipolar interaction are fundamental to the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to molecular structure determination, but they only provide information on the absolute distance r and polar angle θ between spins. In this Letter, we present a protocol to also retrieve the azimuth angle ϕ. Our method relies on measuring the nuclear precession phase after application of a control pulse with a calibrated external radio-frequency coil. We experimentally demonstrate three-dimensional positioning of individual carbon-13 nuclear spins in a diamond host crystal relative to the central electronic spin of a single nitrogen-vacancy center. The ability to pinpoint three-dimensional nuclear locations is central for realizing a nanoscale NMR technique that can image the structure of single molecules with atomic resolution.
@article{arxiv.1807.04559,
title = {Three-dimensional nuclear spin positioning using coherent radio-frequency control},
author = {J. Zopes and K. Herb and K. S. Cujia and C. L. Degen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.04559},
year = {2018}
}