Advances in mechanical detection of magnetic resonance

The invention and initial demonstration of magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) in the early 1990s launched a renaissance of mechanical approaches to detecting magnetic resonance. This article reviews progress made in MRFM in the last decade, including the demonstration of scanned probe detection of magnetic resonance (electron spin resonance, ferromagnetic resonance, and nuclear magnetic resonance) and the mechanical detection of electron spin resonance from a single spin. Force and force-gradient approaches to mechanical detection are reviewed and recent related work using attonewton sensitivity cantilevers to probe minute fluctuating electric fields near surfaces is discussed. Given recent progress, pushing MRFM to single proton sensitivity remains an exciting possibility. We will survey some practical and fundamental issues that must be resolved to meet this challenge.