Magnetic resonance imaging that can locate and resolve individual atoms embedded in a solid material is reported in a paper online this week in Nature Physics. This approach also allows individual spins to be controlled independently of each other, which could be important for technological applications.

Single electron spins have been detected before, but the methods used proved difficult to extend to multi-spin systems. Michael Grinolds and colleagues now demonstrate a magnetic resonance imaging technique that resolves individual spins in three dimensions with nanometre-scale resolution.