Dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) is a promising strategy for generating a significantly increased nonthermal spin polarization in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and its applications that range from medicine diagnostics to material science. Being a genuine nonequilibrium effect, DNP circumvents t...

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Main Authors: Karabanov, Alexander, Wiśniewski, Daniel, Lesanovsky, Igor, Köckenberger, Walter
Format: Article
Published: American Physical Society 2015
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35271/
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author Karabanov, Alexander
Wiśniewski, Daniel
Lesanovsky, Igor
Köckenberger, Walter
author_facet Karabanov, Alexander
Wiśniewski, Daniel
Lesanovsky, Igor
Köckenberger, Walter
author_sort Karabanov, Alexander
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) is a promising strategy for generating a significantly increased nonthermal spin polarization in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and its applications that range from medicine diagnostics to material science. Being a genuine nonequilibrium effect, DNP circumvents the need for strong magnetic fields. However, despite intense research, a detailed theoretical understanding of the precise mechanism behind DNP is currently lacking. We address this issue by focusing on a simple instance of DNP—so-called solid effect DNP—which is formulated in terms of a quantum central spin model where a single electron is coupled to an ensemble of interacting nuclei. We show analytically that the nonequilibrium buildup of polarization heavily relies on a mechanism which can be interpreted as kinetically constrained diffusion. Beyond revealing this insight, our approach furthermore permits numerical studies of ensembles containing thousands of spins that are typically intractable when formulated in terms of a quantum master equation. We believe that this represents an important step forward in the quest of harnessing nonequilibrium many-body quantum physics for technological applications.
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spelling nottingham-352712020-05-04T17:13:22Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35271/ Dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion Karabanov, Alexander Wiśniewski, Daniel Lesanovsky, Igor Köckenberger, Walter Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) is a promising strategy for generating a significantly increased nonthermal spin polarization in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and its applications that range from medicine diagnostics to material science. Being a genuine nonequilibrium effect, DNP circumvents the need for strong magnetic fields. However, despite intense research, a detailed theoretical understanding of the precise mechanism behind DNP is currently lacking. We address this issue by focusing on a simple instance of DNP—so-called solid effect DNP—which is formulated in terms of a quantum central spin model where a single electron is coupled to an ensemble of interacting nuclei. We show analytically that the nonequilibrium buildup of polarization heavily relies on a mechanism which can be interpreted as kinetically constrained diffusion. Beyond revealing this insight, our approach furthermore permits numerical studies of ensembles containing thousands of spins that are typically intractable when formulated in terms of a quantum master equation. We believe that this represents an important step forward in the quest of harnessing nonequilibrium many-body quantum physics for technological applications. American Physical Society 2015-07-10 Article PeerReviewed Karabanov, Alexander, Wiśniewski, Daniel, Lesanovsky, Igor and Köckenberger, Walter (2015) Dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion. Physical Review Letters, 115 (2). 020404/1-020404/5. ISSN 1079-7114 http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.020404 doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.020404 doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.020404
spellingShingle Karabanov, Alexander
Wiśniewski, Daniel
Lesanovsky, Igor
Köckenberger, Walter
Dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion
title Dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion
title_full Dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion
title_fullStr Dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion
title_full_unstemmed Dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion
title_short Dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion
title_sort dynamic nuclear polarization as kinetically constrained diffusion
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35271/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35271/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/35271/