Relaxation enhancement by microwave irradiation may limit dynamic nuclear polarization.

ABSTRACT: Dynamic nuclear polarization enables the hyperpolarization of nuclear spins beyond the thermal-equilibrium Boltzmann distribution. However, it is often unclear why the experimentally measured hyperpolarization is below the theoretically achievable maximum polarization. We report a (near-) resonant relaxation enhancement by microwave (MW) irradiation, leading to a significant increase in the nuclear polarization decay compared to measurements without MW irradiation. For example, the increased nuclear relaxation limits the achievable polarization levels to around 35% instead of hypothetical 60%, measured in the DNP material TEMPO in ¹H glassy matrices at 3.3 K and 7 T. Applying rate-equation models to published build-up and decay data indicates that such relaxation enhancement is

SUBMITTER: von Witte G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10954235 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature