Isotope-Selective Detection and Imaging of Organic Nanolayers

Magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) makes use of the spectroscopic nature of magnetic resonance to add unambiguous elemental selectivity to scanning probe microscopy. We show isotopic selectivity of MRFM for three nuclei, 1H, 31P, and 13C, in organic materials. We also detect a roughly 1 nm thick layer of naturally occurring adsorbates on a gold surface by measuring the magnetic resonance signal of the hydrogen contained in the layer. Finally, we detect the signal from hydrogen present on a carbon nanotube and use it to perform a three-dimensional magnetic resonance image of the 10 nm diameter object.