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External high-quality-factor resonator tunes up nuclear magnetic resonance

Nature Physics volume 11, pages 767–771 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

The development of powerful sensors for the detection of weak electromagnetic fields is crucial for many spectroscopic applications, in particular for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Here, we present a comprehensive theoretical model for boosting the NMR signal-to-noise ratio, validated by liquid-state 1H, 129Xe and 6Li NMR experiments at low frequencies, using an external resonator with a high quality-factor combined with a low-quality-factor input coil. In addition to an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio, this approach exhibits striking features such as a high degree of flexibility with respect to input coil parameters and a square-root dependence on the sample volume, and signifies an important step towards compact NMR spectroscopy at low frequencies with small and large coils.

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Figure 1: Experimental set-up of the EHQE-NMR spectrometer.
Figure 2: Single-scan 1H,6Li and 129Xe EHQE-NMR measurements.
Figure 3: Experimental confirmation of EHQE-NMR theory.
Figure 4: Key properties of the EHQE-NMR method using 1H-NMR of benzene.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge excellent technical assistance and financial support from S. van Waasen, R. Eichel and A. Schwaitzer at Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, and P. Schleker at RWTH Aachen University for sample preparation and consistency checks. We also wish to thank W. Zia for stimulating discussions, as well as J. Colell, M. Emondts and S. Glöggler for their help with various details in hardware construction. Furthermore, we would like to thank M. J. Blümich and H. Burlet for editing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Energy and Climate Research – Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany

    Martin Suefke

  2. Institut für Technische Chemie und Makromolekulare Chemie (ITMC), RWTH Aachen University, D-52056 Aachen, Germany

    Alexander Liebisch, Bernhard Blümich & Stephan Appelt

  3. Central Institute for Engineering, Electronics and Analytics – Electronic Systems (ZEA-2), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany

    Stephan Appelt

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  1. Martin Suefke
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  4. Stephan Appelt
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Contributions

M.S. designed and built the EHQE-NMR probehead, performed experiments, and evaluated experimental results; A.L. built input coil modules, performed experiments, and analysed experimental results; B.B. provided laboratory and experimental facilities and creative input; S.A. supervised the project, designed the EHQE-NMR set-up, performed experiments, and developed the theory. S.A., M.S., A.L. and B.B. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Martin Suefke.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Suefke, M., Liebisch, A., Blümich, B. et al. External high-quality-factor resonator tunes up nuclear magnetic resonance. Nature Phys 11, 767–771 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3382

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