ArXiv · 2026
Conventional nuclear magnetic resonance searches for the galactic axion wind lose sensitivity at low frequencies due to the unfavourable scaling of inductive readout. Here, we propose a hybrid architecture where the hyperfine interaction transduces axion-driven nuclear precession into a high-bandwidth electron-spin readout channel. We demonstrate analytically that this dispersive upconversion preserves the specific sidereal and annual modulation signatures required to distinguish dark matter signals from instrumental backgrounds. When instantiated in a silicon ²⁰⁹ Bi donor platform, the hybrid sensor is projected to outperform direct nuclear detection by more than an order of magnitude over the 10⁻¹⁶-10⁻¹⁰ eV wide mass range. With collective enhancement, the design reaches a 5 σ sensitivity to DFSZ axion-nucleon couplings within one year, establishing hyperfine-mediated sensing as a competitive path for compact, solid-state dark matter searches.
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