Sensing and atomic-scale structure analysis of single nuclear-spin clusters in diamond.

Single-molecule nuclear magnetic resonance is a current challenge in the field of magnetic resonance spectroscopy and has important applications in chemical analysis and quantum computing. Through decoherence measurements of nitrogen-vacancy centres under dynamical decoupling control, the sensing of a single 13C nuclear spin at nanometre distance has recently been realized. A further step towards the ultimate goal of structure analysis of single molecules would be the direct measurement of the interactions within single nuclear-spin clusters. Here we sense a single 13C-13C nuclear-spin dimer located about 1 nm from the nitrogen-vacancy centre and characterize the interaction (∼690 Hz) between the two nuclear spins. From the measured interaction we derive the spatial configuration of the dimer with atomic-scale resolution. These results indicate that, in combination with advanced material-surface engineering, central spin decoherence under dynamical decoupling control may be a useful probe for nuclear magnetic resonance single-molecule structure analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]