US Patent 12019130 Cryogenic integrated circuits architecture for multiplexed chemical-shift NMR

Chemical-shift nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy involves measuring the effects of chemical bonds in a sample on the resonance frequencies of nuclear spins in the sample. Applying a magnetic field to the sample causes the sample nuclei to emit alternating current magnetic fields that can be detected with color centers, which can act as very sensitive magnetometers. Cryogenically cooling the sample increases the sample's polarization, which in turn enhances the NMR signal strength, making it possible to detect net nuclear spins for very small samples. Flash-heating the sample or subjecting it to a magic-angle-spinning magnetic field (instead of a static magnetic field) eliminates built-in magnetic field inhomogeneities, improving measurement sensitivity without degrading the sample polarization. Tens to hundreds of small, cryogenically cooled sample chambers can be integrated in a semiconductor substrate interlaced with waveguides that contain color centers for optically detected magnetic resonance measurements of the samples' chemical-shift NMR frequencies.