Free radicals in irradiated wheat flour detected by electron spin resonance

By electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy, we revealed free radicals in wheat flour before and after γ-ray inrradiation and their thermal behavior during heat treatment. The ESR spectrum of wheat flour before irradiation consists of a sextet centered atg=2.0 and a singlet signal at the sameg-value position. The first one is attributable to a signal with hyperfine (hf) interactions of Mn²⁺ ion (hf constant, 7.4 mT). The second signal originates from the carbon-centered radical. Upon γ-ray irradiation, however, a new signal with two triplet lines at the low- and high-field ends was detected on the Mn²⁺ sextet lines. We analyzed the triplet ESR lines as due to powder spectra (rhombicg-tensor symmetry) with nitrogen (¹⁴N) hf interactions. This indicates that a new organic radical was induced in the conjugated protein portion of wheat flour by γ-ray irradiation. The intensity of the organic free radical atg=2.0 detected in irradiated wheat flour increased monotonically under thermal treatment. The analysis of the time-dependent evolution process on the basis of the theory of transient phenomena as well as the nonlinear least-squares numerical method provided a unique time constant for the radical evolution in wheat flour during thermal treatment.     

Electrically detected electron spin resonance in a high-mobility silicon quantum well

The resistivity change due to electron spin resonance (ESR) absorption is investigated in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system formed in a Si/SiGe heterostructure. Results for a specific Landau level configuration demonstrate that the primary cause of the ESR signal is a reduction of the spin polarization, not the effect of electron heating. The longitudinal spin relaxation time T1 is obtained to be of the order of 1 ms in an in-plane magnetic field of 3.55 T. The suppression of the effect of the Rashba fields due to high-frequency spin precession explains the very long T1.     

电阻式核磁共振测量的最新进展

电阻式核磁共振(RDNMR)测量是1988年由德国马普所的von Klitzing研究小组针对GaAs二维电子气中少量核自旋的探测而提出的一种具有超高灵敏度的实验技术. 目前, RDNMR已经成为研究单层或双层GaAs二维电子气核自旋和电子自旋特性的重要手段. 由于为实现电阻式核磁共振测量所建立的动态核极化方法强烈依赖于GaAs特有的材料属性, 至今这一技术一直没有扩展应用到其他半导体低维系统中. 最近,本研究小组发展了一种动态核极化新方法,成功实现了对典型窄带半导体锑化铟(InSb) 二维电子气的电阻式核磁共振测量.本文在介绍电阻式核磁共振测量工作原理及已建立的典型动态核极化方法的基础上,着重讨论所提出的动态核极化新方法的机理、 实验结果以及对今后研究的展望.     

Single-molecule electron spin resonance

In 1993, two collaborations independently achieved the first optical detection of a single electron spin, using paramagnetic resonance of the triplet state of a single molecule. We review the context of this work and the main later results and give a brief outlook for future experiments based on the detection and manipulation of single spins by optical methods.     

Hyperfine-mediated gate-driven electron spin resonance

An all-electrical spin resonance effect in a GaAs few-electron double quantum dot is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The magnetic field dependence and absence of associated Rabi oscillations are consistent with a novel hyperfine mechanism. The resonant frequency is sensitive to the instantaneous hyperfine effective field, and the effect can be used to detect and create sizable nuclear polarizations. A device incorporating a micromagnet exhibits a magnetic field difference between dots, allowing electrons in either dot to be addressed selectively.     

Acoustic detection of electron spin resonance

The ESR-signal of DPPH was recorded by detecting the modulation of the absorbed microwave power with a gas-coupled microphone. This photo-acoustic detection scheme is compared with conventional ESR-detection. Applications of the acoustical detection method to other modulation spectroscopic techniques, particularly NMR, are discussed.     

High resolution electron spin resonance microscopy

NMR microscopy is routinely employed in fields of science such as biology, botany, and materials science to observe magnetic parameters and transport phenomena in small scale structures. Despite extensive efforts, the resolution of this method is limited (>10 microm for short acquisition times), and thus cannot answer many key questions in these fields. We show, through theoretical prediction and initial experiments, that ESR microscopy, although much less developed, can improve upon the resolution limits of NMR, and successfully undertake the 1 mum resolution challenge. Our theoretical predictions demonstrate that existing ESR technology, along with advanced imaging probe design (resonator and gradient coils), using solutions of narrow linewidth radicals (the trityl family), should yield 64 x 64 pixels 2D images (with z slice selection) with a resolution of 1 x 1 x 10 microm at approximately 60 GHz in less than 1h of acquisition. Our initial imaging results, conducted by CW ESR at X-band, support these theoretical predictions and already improve upon the previously reported state-of-the-art for 2D ESR image resolution achieving approximately 10 x 10 mum, in just several minutes of acquisition time. We analyze how future progress, which includes improved resonators, increased frequency of measurement, and advanced pulsed techniques, should achieve the goal of micron resolution.     

Conduction electron spin resonance in magnesium

We report on the observation of conduction electron spin resonance (CESR) in samples of specially purified magnesium. Measurements were made over the temperature range 4.2–300 K and at two frequencies, 9.27 and 21 GHz. It is found that in contrast with previous data, there is no upturn in the low temperature linewidth and little variation between samples.     

Mechanisms of flexural-strain-modulated electron spin resonance

Strain-modulated electron spin resonance (SMESR) spectra of V²⁺ and Mn²⁺ centers in MgO are reported and the results are compared with those obtained for MgO : Cr³⁺. The SMESR line intensities show a characteristic angular dependence, proving that modulation of the off-diagonal elements of the $\text{G}$-tensor is the predominant mechanism when a flexural mode of vibration is applied.For V²⁺ a small additional contribution due to modulation of the diagonal elements of $\text{G}$ is present.     

Dependence of optically oriented and detected electron spin resonance on donor concentration in n-GaAs

Electron spin resonance of donors in GaAs has been observed through optical orientation and detection of spins. GaAs samples doped below the metal-insulator transition were studied. The resonance linewidth increases as the concentration of donors is reduced, due to the dependence of the T₂^* spin lifetime on correlation effects between donor electrons. The linewidth of the lowest doped sample (3×10¹⁴ cm⁻³) corresponds to a T₂^* of 5 ns, which is the value predicted for electrons in the non-interacting, localized limit. The nuclei need to be simultaneously depolarized in order to make the electron resonance observable.     

Optically detected electron resonance in phosphorus-doped ZnTe

Samples of ZnTe showing near gap edge luminescence predominantly due to exciton recombination at shallow neutral acceptors and donor- acceptor pair recombination have been investigated using optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR). Emission polarization changes at 2.318 eV were observed due to magnetic resonance of electrons at g_e = + 0.401 ± 0.004. The observations are consistent with the donor trapped electron resonance resulting from microwave induced changes in donor-acceptor pair photoluminescence.     

Non-linear transport in tetrathiofulvalene-tetracyanoquinodimethane: An electron spin resonance study

We describe an ESR study of pure and irradiated TTF-TCNQ in the low temperature range (1.2 K–4.2 K) where nonlinear transport has been observed. We find no evidence of an activated term in the susceptibility; our results yield an upper limit of about 10 ppm for nonmagnetic impurities with a spin-$\text{1}\text{2}$ excited state. Since in pure samples, the activated susceptibility term is not present whereas the transport nonlinearity is clearly seen, we conclude that the latter cannot be attributed to hot electron effects. The susceptibility and dc bias studies are consistent with a nonmagnetic soliton picture. We have monitored the spin resonance in the presence of a dc bias current. Using the Curie law as an internal thermometer we are able to set an upper limit on sample heating of 0.1 K at the highest dc levels used.     

Nature of tunneling electron spin resonance of an isolated surface spin

A phenomenological model has been proposed for tunneling electron spin resonance (ESR) of an isolated surface spin situated in a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), which explains the dependence of features (local maxima) of the tunneling current on the radio-frequency (RF) electric field and on the position of the tip with respect to the spin. A crossover of the line shape of the resonance signals, whose nature in weak and strong pumping fields corresponds to Lorentzian and Fano resonances, respectively, has been interpreted. New ESR–STM effects that are linear and nonlinear in the RF field and are promising for developing the methods of controlling spin qubits have been predicted.     

高分辨电子显微学的新进展 --走向亚埃电子显微时代

简要介绍了高分辨电子显微学的最新进展．特别指出，随着空间分辨率突破1A和亚埃分辨率的电子显微镜的快速普及，电子显微学及相关研究领域将进入一个快速发展的阶段．装备有球差校正器和能量单色器的新一代电子显微镜将很快进入实验室，给出高质量的原子结构图像（分辨率优于1A）和高能量分辨率的电子能量损失谱（优于0．1eV）．这一进展将对晶体结构学、材料科学、物理学、纳米科学及生命科学产生重大影响，也为解决很多重要结构问题提供新机遇．     

The electron spin resonance of polycarbonate track detectors

Polycarbonate films are widely used as solid state track detectors (SSTDs) of radiation, but as yet our knowledge of the microscopic nature of the latent track is limited. The processes of chemical etching and thermal annealing are not fully understood. The lack of stability of track parameters bears on the accuracy of the charge determination of energetic heavy nuclei.

We have applied the technique of electron spin resonance, (ESR) in order to seek a correlation between the density of tracks and the growth and decay of free radicals detected by ESR. Samples of polycarbonate were irradiated with thermal neutrons and then etched progressively with NaOH. The ESR signal increased initially and then became weaker as the bulk of the polycarbonate was removed. Other samples were annealed after partial etching. ESR monitoring of this annealing showed that free radicals were recombining, probably due to diffusion processes.     

Optical detection of electron spin resonance in CdTe

We report the optical detection of electron spin resonance in p-type CdTe at 1.7 K in optical pumping conditions. The Overhauser shift of the electronic resonance, of the order of 45 G, is related to the sign of the electron g-factor g¹. We measure $\text{g}{}^1\text{= -1.59±0.02}$. Using this g¹ value and the previous results on the Knight shift, we deduce the value of the electron wavefunction on Cd in CdTe, which is consistent with the value in CdS.     

Conduction-electron drift velocity measurement via electron spin resonance

In analogy with NMR, motion induced phase shift of pulsed ESR signals enables in principle the direct detection of electron drift velocity or electronic current, respectively. Overcoming the difficulties with additional magnetic field gradients induced by the current itself, we succeeded in demonstrating the detection of electron flow via ESR. Measuring the electron drift velocity in the organic conductor (fluoranthene)2PF6 the microscopic Ohmic law could be observed in a current range of more than +/-0.25 A.