Exploiting level anti-crossings for efficient and selective transfer of hyperpolarization in coupled nuclear spin systems

Abstract

Spin hyperpolarization can be coherently transferred to other nuclei in field-cycling NMR experiments. At low magnetic fields spin polarization is redistributed in a strongly coupled network of spins. Polarization transfer is most efficient at fields where level anti-crossings (LACs) occur for the nuclear spin-states. A further condition is that field switching to the LAC positions is non-adiabatic in order to convert the starting population differences into spin coherences that cause time-dependent mixing of states. The power of this method has been demonstrated by studying transfer of photo-Chemically Induced Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (photo-CIDNP) in N-acetyl-tryptophan. We have investigated the magnetic field dependence and time dependence of coherent CIDNP transfer and directly assessed nuclear spin LACs by studying polarization transfer at specific field positions. The proposed approach based on LACs is not limited to CIDNP but is advantageous for enhancing NMR signals by spin order transfer from any type of hyper-polarized nuclei.