|
Radiation Damping
|
The purpose of this page is to show some illustrative examples of radiation damping rather than
giving detailed explantions; to that end, a few links are provided below.
The effects of radiation damping can be observed on samples that produce an intense signal. This
signal is strong enough to induce an electromagnetic force in the rf coil that acts back on the sample.
Due to this feedback, the actual amplitude and phase of the rf pulses are modified.
The potential effects on the spectrum are:
- peak broadening
- peak asymmetry
- phase shifting
This might not always be apparent. For example, see the following 1H spectra obtained for 95%
tetramethyltin in C6D6 at 9.4 T (400 MHz 1H frequency):
|
1H inversion recovery experiment:
the strong center peak corresponds to protons not coupled to any NMR active nuclei, flanked by
115,117,119Sn satellites with a coupling constant of approximately 54 Hz, and the
small 13C satellites with a coupling constant of 128 Hz.
The only unusual thing is the broadening observed for the strong center peak (15.5 Hz fwhh),
compared to the 13C satellites(< 1 Hz), as well as a strange phase shift. |
The analysis of the inversion recovery experiment reveals another very unusual observation:
the apparent spin-lattice relaxation time of the protons associated with the center peak, 0.08 sec,
is two orders of magnitude shorter than that of the satellites, ca. 8 sec. |
|
pulse length calibration: this well-known experiment for the calibration of
flip angles illustrates the effect of radiation damping rather nicely:
while the peaks due to the satellites follow the typical sinusoidal pattern as a function
of pulse duration, the center peak exhibits a different behavior: starting at an flip angle of about
90 deg, there is a phase twist that gets increasingly stronger and reaches a maximum at 180 deg.
Only at 360 deg basically no residual signal is left. |