¹⁴N pulsed nuclear quadrupole resonance. 1. Nutation experiments in the case of an axially symmetric electric field gradient tensor

Abstract

An exact theory based on density matrix calculations is provided for assessing the nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) behaviour of a spin 1 (¹⁴N) subjected to a single radio-frequency pulse. It concerns a powder sample in zero magnetic field with the assumption of an axially symmetric electric field gradient tensor. Theoretical results, in terms of signal evolution as a function of the pulse length (nutation experiments), are checked against values of the radio-frequency field amplitude provided by NMR measurements performed with the same equipment. Good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained.

Acknowledgements

We are especially grateful to an anonymous referee who performed simulations to assess the validity of the calculations presented here and who found a flaw (a superfluous factor) which has been corrected in this final version.