  Paramagnetic luminescent impurities in solids such as Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV)
centers in diamond represent a promising and versatile platform for the
development of a wide range of chemical and biological sensors. This goal can
be accomplished by the placement of chemically active, spin (electron or
nuclear) labeled moiety on the surface in the close vicinity of a shallow
single paramagnetic center. In this paper, we demonstrate that the Forster
Resonant Excitation Transfer driven process where luminescent center plays a
role of excitation donor can accomplish such a goal with high chemical
efficiency, positionally precise and a scalable manner. We obtain the
probability distribution function of the sensing group position relative to the
luminescent center (NV center) and demonstrate that the functionalization
position uncertainty is equal to the luminescent center deposition depth. The
efficiency of the FRET process is analyzed as a function of the luminescent
center deposition depth and the density of the excitation acceptor sites.
Employing the geometric information of the surface-functionalized sensing
groups, we obtain the probability distribution function of the energy gap in
the spectrum of a spin-based detection system. This information allows us to
estimate the single-molecule detection capabilities of the proposed system.
