The Doppler effect in NMR spectroscopy

Abstract

An NMR sample may be subject to motions, such as those due to sample spinning or to liquid flow. Is the spectrum of such a sample affected by the Doppler effect? The question arises because, instrumental dimensions being much shorter than the wavelength, it is the near-field of the precessing magnetic moment which couples to the receiver coil, rather than the radiated far-field. We expand the near-field into plane propagating waves. For each such wave there is another one with the same amplitude, propagating in the opposite direction. The Doppler shifts are therefore equal and opposite. In the model case of a small fluid sample moving with constant velocity, this leads to a distribution of Doppler shifts which is symmetrical with respect to the unshifted frequency: there is no net spectral shift. We examine the possibility of observing the Doppler distribution in this case. We also consider the case of thermal motion of a gas. We draw attention to the resolved Doppler splitting of molecular rotational transitions in a supersonic burst as observed in a microwave resonator. We also mention briefly the Doppler effect in molecular beam spectroscopy.