Suppression of spin diffusion near a micron-size ferromagnet

We have used the large gradients generated near the ferromagnetic tip of a magnetic resonance force microscope to locally suppress spin diffusion in a silica sample containing paramagnetic electron spins. By controlling the slice location with respect to the tip, the magnetic field gradient was varied from 0.01 to 36 mT/mum, resulting in a fourfold decrease in T-1(-1) and a similar decrease in T-1rho(-1). The observed dependence of the relaxation rates on field gradient is consistent with the quenching of flip-flop interactions that mediate the transport of magnetization between slow and fast relaxing spins.