Abstract

Fundamental life science and practical medicine need tools to probe electromagnetic field, temperature, and pH with nanometer spatial resolution in order to gain insights into the intra- and extra-cellular processes. EXTRASENS develops multimodal quantum biosensor complemented with super resolution bioimaging functionality using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) and silicon-vacancy (SiV) color centers in biocompatible diamond single crystal nanoneedles (DNNs) validated in the lab (TRL4). Key Performance Indicators require spatial resolution of the real-time measurements of electric and magnetic fields, temperature and pH to be less than 20 nm achievable due to perfect DNN crystallinity and precise positioning of color centers over the needle axis. The benchmark for the multimodal sensing is determined by exceptional sensitivity of color center optical properties to tiny changes of probed physical values, that has already been demonstrated by project partners and/or other groups. By converting quantum science concepts into technological applications, EXTRASENS develops new exploitable products (all to TRL4):
(i) diamond nanoneedles with precisely positioned NV and SiV color centers, synthesized using scalable chemical vapour deposition (CVD),
(ii) routines and methodologies for bio-functionalization of CVD diamonds,
(iii) multimodal sensor based on NV and SiV, or only NV color centers in DNNs,
(iv) methods, algorithms, and software applicable for various super resolution imaging schemes complemented with quantum sensing,
(v) bioimaging device with spatial resolution < 20 nm.
EXTRASENS technology and its integral parts, will provide benefits for European society and citizens enabling in the middle-to-long run new strategies and standards for disease diagnosis, prognosis, and (crucially) prevention, and as a result, improving wellbeing.