CIQTEK generously sponsored an annual lectureship and award, given to a young scientist who has made a great contribution to electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR or ESR) research. At the 12th Asia-Pacific EPR/ESR Symposium (APES 2022), the CIQTEK Sponsored Young Scientist Award was awarded to Dr. Fei Kong, CAS Key Laboratory of Microscale Magnetic Resonance and School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China.
As winner of the 2022 competition, Dr. Fei Kong was invited to gave a prize lecture, "Zero-field EPR spectroscopy based on quantum sensors", at the conference, on November 6th.
APES 2022, Webinar, November 4-7, 2022
CIQTEK is happy to sponsor the APES 2022 during November 4-7, 2022. The symposium this year is an online event for international speakers and participants, a new start for Asia-Pacific EPR/ESR Society in the post-epidemic era. The main aims of APES 2022 are to bring together EPR/ESR spectroscopists and to promote and facilitate collaboration among the EPR/ESR community. APES 2022 is intended to stimulate discussions on the forefront of research in all aspects of EPR/ESR ranging from theoretical and experimental advances in CW/Pulsed EPR, high frequency, and high field EPR, ENDOR, PEDLOR/DEER, time-resolved EPR, FMR, MRI, ODMR to applications in medicine, biology, chemistry, materials science and nanotechnology.
Abstract of the Lecture: Zero-field EPR spectroscopy based on quantum sensors
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, serving as quantum sensors, can promote the sensitivity of EPR detection to a single-spin level even under ambient conditions, and thus enable single-molecule EPR spectroscopy [Science. 347, 1135–1138 (2015); Nat. Methods 15, 697–699 (2018)]. A key figure of single-molecule EPR is that it can resolve heterogeneous molecular information, which is averaged in conventional EPR measurement. However, the current single-molecule measurements are insufficient to do so, due to the poor spectral resolution. Here, I will introduce an easy way to substantially improve the spectral resolution, i.e., removing the magnetic field. The zero-field EPR has been well-studied for decades [Chem. Rev. 83, 49–82 (1983)]. It has narrower spectra with the tradeoff of much poorer sensitivity. Difference from conventional inductive detection, the signal of NV-EPR comes from the statistical fluctuation rather than the thermal polarization of spins, which does not depend on the magnetic field. Therefore, the NV center is an ideal sensor for zero-field EPR detection. I will show that the NV-EPR has the advantage in not only spatial resolution but also spectral resolution.
Biography of Dr. Fei Kong
Dr. Fei Kong was born in Hefei, China. In 2012 he obtained a B.Sc. degree at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and later undertook experimental research there on quantum control and quantum simulation using nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond with Prof. Dr. Jiangfeng Du and Prof. Dr. Fazhan Shi. He received a Ph.D. degree based on this work in 2018. After 3 years of postdoctoral research on the single-molecule EPR in the same group, he is now a research fellow there. His research interest includes quantum control and quantum sensing, especially new EPR methods & techniques based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds. He has developed nanoscale zero-field EPR spectroscopy, which can greatly improve spectral resolution while maintaining single-spin sensitivity.
CIQTEK is pleased to continue supporting this award at future conferences to encourage more young scientists to contribute to EPR research.