Excitation of singlet–triplet coherences in pairs of nearly-equivalent spins
We present approaches for an efficient excitation of singlet–triplet coherences in pairs of nearly-equivalent spins. Standard Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) pulse sequences do not excite these coherences at all or with very low efficiency. The single quantum singlet–triplet coherences, here termed the outer singlet–triplet coherences, correspond to lines of low intensity in the NMR spectrum of a strongly-coupled spin pair (they are sometimes referred to as “forbidden transitions”), whereas the zero-quantum coherences, here termed the inner singlet–triplet coherences, do not have a direct spectral manifestation. In the present study, we investigated singlet–triplet coherences in a pair of …
Polarization transfer via field sweeping in parahydrogen-enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance.
<div><br></div><div><table><tr><td>We show that in a spin system of two magnetically inequivalent protons coupled to a heteronucleus such as 13C, an adiabatic magnetic field sweep, passing through zero field, transfers proton singlet order into magnetization of the coupled heteronucleus. This effect is potentially useful in parahydrogen-enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance, and is demonstrated on singlet-hyperpolarized [1-13C]maleic acid, which is prepared via the reaction between [1-13C]acetylene dicarboxylic acid and para-enriched hydrogen gas. The magnetic field sweeps are of microtesla amplitudes, and have durations on the order of seconds. We sh…
Algorithmic cooling of nuclear spins using long-lived singlet order
Algorithmic cooling methods manipulate an open quantum system in order to lower its temperature below that of the environment. We achieve significant cooling of an ensemble of nuclear spin-pair systems by exploiting the long-lived nuclear singlet state, which is an antisymmetric quantum superposition of the "up" and "down" Zeeman states. The effect is demonstrated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments on a molecular system containing a coupled pair of near-equivalent 13C nuclei. The populations of the system are subjected to a repeating sequence of cyclic permutations separated by relaxation intervals. The long-lived nuclear singlet order is pumped well beyond the unitary limit. T…
Algorithmic Cooling of Nuclear Spin Pairs using a Long-Lived Singlet State
Algorithmic cooling methods manipulate an open quantum system in order to lower its temperature below that of the environment. We show that significant cooling is achieved on an ensemble of spin-pair systems by exploiting the long-lived nuclear singlet state, which is an antisymmetric quantum superposition of the "up" and "down" qubit states. The effect is demonstrated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments on a molecular system containing a coupled pair of near-equivalent 13C nuclei. The populations of the system are subjected to a repeating sequence of cyclic permutations separated by relaxation intervals. The long-lived nuclear singlet order is pumped well beyond the unitary lim…