Room-temperature quantum-sensing molecular crystals grown in minutes

Abstract:Quantum sensing increasingly demands materials combining room-temperature optical spin addressability and coherent control with rapid, accessible fabrication. Yet semiconductor platforms require costly materials and specialized processing, while molecular systems often depend on bespoke synthesis or involved crystal growth. Here we apply microspacing in-air sublimation (MAS) to rapidly fabricate quantum-sensing materials within minutes. Microgram quantities of commercially available precursors crystallize on glass, in air and without vacuum or inert-gas handling. Monitored in situ, growth yields optically clear, stoichiometric single crystals of excellent quality, including plates and needles with intrinsic optical waveguiding. Donor-acceptor charge-transfer co-crystals pairing anthracene or biphenyl with tetracyanobenzene, together with localized-exciton pentacene:pentacenequinone (P:PQ), exhibit room-temperature optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR). Charge-transfer ODMR resonances reach linewidths below $4\mathrm{MHz}$, consistent with motional narrowing of mobile triplet excitons, while P:PQ supports coherent ensemble spin control with $T_2=0.56\mu\mathrm{s}$. Functionality across chemically and electronically distinct pairs establishes MAS as an accessible screen for molecular quantum-sensing materials, connecting molecular crystal engineering with low-cost, chemically tunable thin triplet-spin layers and waveguiding sensor geometries for quantum sensing and microscopy.

arXiv:2609.30899 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2609.30899v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.30899 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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