Multiharmonic electron paramagnetic resonance for extended samples with both narrow and broad lines

Abstract

Multiharmonic electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy was demonstrated for two samples with both narrow and broad lines: (i) α,γ-Bisdiphenylene-β-phenylallyl (BDPA) with ΔBpp of 0.85G plus ultramarine blue with ΔBpp of 17G, and (ii) a nitroxide radical immobilized in sucrose octaacetate. Modulation amplitudes up to 17G at 41kHz were generated with a rapid scan coil driver and Litz wire coils that provide uniform magnetic field sweeps over samples with heights of 5mm. Data were acquired with a 2-D experiment in the Xepr software through the transient signal path of a Bruker E500T and digitized in quadrature with a Bruker SpecJet II. Signals at the modulation frequency and its harmonics were calculated by digital phase-sensitive detection. The number of harmonics with signal intensity greater than noise increases as the ratio of the modulation amplitude to the narrowest peak increases. Spectra reconstructed by the multiharmonic method from data obtained with modulation amplitudes up to five times the peak-to-peak linewidths of the narrowest features have linewidths that are broadened by up to only about 10% relative to linewidths in spectra obtained at low modulation amplitudes. The signal-to-noise improves with increasing modulation amplitude up to the point where the modulation amplitude is slightly larger than the linewidth of the narrowest features. If this high a modulation amplitude had been used in conventional methodology the linewidth of the narrowest features would have been severely broadened. The multiharmonic reconstruction methodology means that the selection of the modulation amplitude that can be used without spectral distortion is no longer tightly tied to the linewidth of the narrowest line.