X-band single chip integrated pulsed electron spin resonance microsystem

Abstract

We report on the design and characterization of a single chip integrated pulsed ESR detector operating at 9.1 GHz. The microsystem consists of an excitation microcoil, a detection microcoil, a low noise microwave preamplifier, a mixer, and an intermediate frequency amplifier. The chip area is about 0.7 mm^2. To exemplify its possible applications, we report the results of single pulse, Raby nutation, Hahn echo, two echoes, Carr-Purcell, and inversion recovery echo experiments performed on 0.02 and 0.05 nL samples of α,γ-bisdiphenylene-β-phenylallyl (BDPA) and 1% BDPA in polystyrene (BDPA:PS) at room temperature. The measured spin sensitivity is about 7x10^7 spins/Hz^(1/2) on a sensitive volume of about 0.1 nL. The microsystem power consumption is less than 100 mW, the RF input bandwidth is 8.8 to 9.8 GHz, the IF output bandwidth is DC to 350 MHz, and the deadtime is less than 30 ns.