Conversion of parahydrogen induced longitudinal two-spin order to evenly distributed single spin polarisation by optimal control pulse sequences

Strongly enhanced spin polarization in the form of longitudinal spin order can be generated on target molecules by using parahydrogen in a catalyzed hydrogenation reaction. An optimal control algorithm was used to generate radiofrequency pulse sequences which convert the arising longitudinal two-spin order into single-spin Zeeman order with high efficiency and distribute it evenly between three coupled spins within the same molecule. The pulses are designed to be very robust towards variations in the B(0) and B(1) fields. Furthermore, this strategy is applied to enhance the NMR signal in an ultrafast gradient assisted single excitation two-dimensional spectroscopy experiment.