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Updated: Apr 19, 2026

Monitoring Conformational Dynamics of Single Unmodified Proteins using Plasmonic Nanotweezers
Published on: March 21, 2025
Tracking temperature-dependent relaxation times of ferritin nanomagnets with a wideband quantum spectrometer
Eike Schäfer-Nolte1, Lukas Schlipf1, Markus Ternes2
1Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany and 3rd Institute of Physics and Research Center SCoPE, University Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
Abstract:
We demonstrate the tracking of the spin dynamics of ensemble and individual magnetic ferritin proteins from cryogenic up to room temperature using the nitrogen-vacancy color center in diamond as a magnetic sensor. We employ different detection protocols to probe the influence of the ferritin nanomagnets on the longitudinal and transverse relaxation of the nitrogen-vacancy center, which enables magnetic sensing over a wide frequency range from Hz to GHz. The temperature dependence of the observed spectral features can be well understood by the thermally induced magnetization reversals of the ferritin and enables the determination of the anisotropy barrier of single ferritin molecules.
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