中子自旋回波：研究蛋白质结构域动力学的利器

蛋白质作为生物系统这种复杂分子机器的重要组成部分之一,理解它们内部的结构及其在不同时间及空间尺度上的运动,对于研究生命的运作机理至关重要。相较于其他实验手段,中子自旋回波技术能探测到更大时空范围的性质,在研究蛋白质内部的结构域动力学方面具有独特的优势。这是一门横跨核物理与核技术、非平衡态统计物理学、分子生物学与蛋白质组学等前沿交叉领域的学科,充满着诸多未知与挑战,也遍布着一探生命奥秘的机遇。文章简述了中子自旋回波实验技术的基本原理和发展历程,阐述其在研究蛋白质结构域动力学方面的方法和技术优势,并介绍了部分实验案例,最后对其应用前景进行探讨与展望。     

Neutron spin echo: A new concept in polarized thermal neutron techniques

A simple method to change and keep track of neutron beam polarization non-parallel to the magnetic field is described. It makes possible the establishment of a new focusing effect we call neutron spin echo. The technique developed and tested experimentally can be applied in several novel ways, e. g. for neutron spin flipper of superior characteristics, for a very high resolution spectrometer for direct determination of the Fourier transform of the scattering function, for generalised polarization analysis and for the measurement of neutron particle properties with significantly improved precision.     

Magnetoelectronic spin echo

We predict a spin echo in electron transport through layered ferromagnetic-normal-ferromagnetic metal structures: whereas a spin current polarized perpendicular to the magnetization direction decays when traversing a single homogeneous ferromagnet on the scale of the ferromagnetic spin-coherence length, it partially reappears by adding a second identical but antiparallel ferromagnet. This reentrant transverse spin current resembles the spin-echo effect in the magnetization of nuclei under pulsed excitations. We propose an experimental setup to measure the spin echo.     

Muon spin echo

A muon spin echo method is proposed for determining the contributions of the static and dynamic local fields in muon experiments. It is shown that if for each muon which has stopped in the sample a rf pulse of fixed duration is applied to the sample at a time τ after the muon entered the sample, then after a sufficient number of muon-positron decays have been accumulated a muon spin echo can appear at time 2τ. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 64, No. 7, 500–503 (10 October 1996)     

Neutron spin echo measurements of monolayer and capillary condensed water in MCM-41 at low temperatures

Neutron spin echo measurements of monolayer and capillary condensed heavy water (D(2)O) confined in MCM-41 C10 (pore diameter 2.10 nm) were performed in a temperature range of 190-298 K. The intermediate scattering functions were analyzed by the Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts stretched exponential function. The relaxation times of confined D(2)O in the capillary condensed state follow remarkably well the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann equation between 298 and 220 K, whereas below 220 K they show an Arrhenius type behavior. That is, the fragile-to-strong (FTS) dynamic crossover occurs, which has never been seen in experiments on bulk water. On the other hand, for monolayer D(2)O, the FTS dynamic crossover was not observed in the temperature range measured. The FTS dynamic crossover observed in capillary condensed water would take place in the central region of the pore, not near the pore surface. Because the tetrahedral-like water structure in the central region of the pore is more preserved than that near the pore surface, the FTS dynamic crossover would be concerned with the tetrahedral-like water structure.     

Neutron spin rotation and P-violation

A new apparatus to measure the neutron spin rotation due to interaction with matter has been developed at KEK. The present apparatus enables us to measure the parity violating neutron spin rotation in the p-wave resonance in the energy region of eV.On leave from Tohoku University.     

Image domain propeller fast spin echo

A new pulse sequence for high-resolution T2-weighted (T2-w) imaging is proposed — image domain propeller fast spin echo (iProp-FSE). Similar to the T2-w PROPELLER sequence, iProp-FSE acquires data in a segmented fashion, as blades that are acquired in multiple TRs. However, the iProp-FSE blades are formed in the image domain instead of in the k-space domain. Each iProp-FSE blade resembles a single-shot fast spin echo (SSFSE) sequence with a very narrow phase-encoding field of view (FOV), after which N rotated blade replicas yield the final full circular FOV. Our method of combining the image domain blade data to a full FOV image is detailed, and optimal choices of phase-encoding FOVs and receiver bandwidths were evaluated on phantom and volunteers. The results suggest that a phase FOV of 15–20%, a receiver bandwidth of ± 32–63 kHz and a subsequent readout time of about 300 ms provide a good tradeoff between signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) efficiency and T2 blurring. Comparisons between iProp-FSE, Cartesian FSE and PROPELLER were made on single-slice axial brain data, showing similar T2-w tissue contrast and SNR with great anatomical conspicuity at similar scan times — without colored noise or streaks from motion. A new slice interleaving order is also proposed to improve the multislice capabilities of iProp-FSE.     

Challenges in neutron spin echo spectroscopy

With the new brilliant neutron sources and the developments of novel optical elements, neutron spin echo (NSE) spectroscopy evolves to tackle new problems and scientific fields. The new developments pave the way to complex experimental set-ups such as the intensity modulated variant of NSE (IMNSE), a powerful technique which was introduced some 20 years ago but found limited use up to now. With the new compact supermirror or He³ polarizers IMNSE becomes attractive for a broad range of applications in magnetism, soft matter and biology. A novel development along this line is the polarimetric NSE technique, which combines IMNSE and the zero-field polarimeter Cryopad to access components of the scattered polarization that are transverse to the incoming polarization. Polarimetric NSE is the method of choice for studying chiral fluctuations, as illustrated by new results on the reference helimagnet MnSi.     

A comparison of fast spin echo and gradient field echo sequences

Optimal angle, fast repeat time, gradient field echo imaging techniques such as FISP (Fast Imaging with Steady Precession) and FLASH (Fast Low Angle Shot) often fail to discriminate disease from healthy tissue for two main reasons. First, T1 and T2 of the affected tissue may increase such that the ratio of T1 to T2 remains nearly unchanged, hence there is no contrast change with FISP. Second, T2 weighted gradient field echo images suffer severely from T2* signal and resolution loss leading to a reduction in C/N. Although FLASH imaging with two separate angles can, in principle, extract the longer T1 tumors, contrast is often not good. To overcome the inhomogeneity and contrast problems, we have implemented a FAst optimal angle spin-echo sequence with a short TE(FATE). For the first echo, FATE has the same contrast properties as FLASH with a slight decrease in signal intensity. The advantage is that the intensity of the signal does not suffer from T2* signal decay, hence improved contrast and disease detection via T2 weighted FATE images is possible. Contrast-to-noise in lesion detection is also considered for CE FAST (Contrast Enhanced Fast), a T2-weighted version of FISP, and HYBRID.     

Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography: comparison between respiratory-triggered turbo spin echo and breath hold single-shot turbo spin echo sequences

The purpose of this study was to compare the relative conspicuity of the pancreaticobiliary tree on respiratory-triggered three-dimensional turbo spin echo (3D TSE RT) and breath hold single-shot turbo spin echo (SSTSE BH) acquisitions respectively in MRCP imaging. Both techniques were applied to 61 patients with clinically suspected pancreaticobiliary disease using a 1.0 T MR system. All images were reviewed blindly. Qualitative comparison was made by grading subjectively the conspicuity of extrahepatic, intrahepatic, and main pancreatic ducts. Quantitative comparison included calculations of signal-to-noise ratio of the common bile duct, main pancreatic duct, gallbladder, liver, and contrast-to-noise ratio, relative contrast between common bile duct, gallbladder, and liver. 3D TSE RT provided significantly higher signal-to-noise ratio of the common bile duct (mean value 163.19) and main pancreatic duct (mean value 95.37) compared to SSTSE BH (mean values 76.24 and 26.22, respectively). 3D TSE RT was inferior to SSTSE BH for the depiction of intrahepatic ducts and pancreatic duct (head portion). 3D TSE RT and SSTSE BH sequences provide complimentary information in the visualization of the biliary and pancreatic ducts. Further comparative clinical studies are needed to redefine the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of MRCP using both sequences.     

Dynamic nuclear polarization in electron spin echo

It is shown that under the action of a proper microwave pulse sequence the equilibrium polarization of the electron spin may be transferred dynamically to the longitudinal nuclear magnetization which will oscillate due to the nuclear spin precession around the effective fields relating to differnt electron quantum number manifolds. These oscillations may be measured directly in the radiofrequency band. Analytical formulae are obtained for the case when all the nuclei coupled to an unpaired electron have spins of 1/2.     

Stochastic excitation of a stimulated spin echo

The excitation of a stimulated spin echo by two coherent pulses of Gaussian white noise and a δ-function-like radio pulse is studied. The mean value of the complex envelope of the echo is obtained by solving the Bloch equations. The behavior of the mean value of the envelope of the stimulated echo is investigated for a Lorentzian shape of the inhomogeneously broadened absorption line. It is shown that in an excitation regime which is linear for noise pulses the envelope corresponds to the Fourier transform of the line-shape function. Nonlinear distortions of the mean value of the envelope of a stimulated echo can arise outside the linear excitation regime. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 67, 100–104 (October 1997)     

Nutation electron spin echo ofE-centers in quartz

Attenuation of the signals of the nutation echo of E’-centers in crystalline and glass quartz was experimentally investigated at room temperature. The nutation echo in EPR was excited in the single-photon regime and formed by two Zeeman-field pulses with duration t₁ and t₂ (t₁<t₂) and time interval between them τ. The echo signal was recorded during the second pulse at t≈2t₁+τ. It was established that this signal attenuation, measured as t₁ increased, follows an, exponential law, its rate Γ is much less than 1/T₂ (T₂ is the transverse relaxation time), and it linearly increases with an increase in the amplitude of the exciting SHF field B₁. The parameters of the dependence of Γ on B₁ correlate with the parameters of the analogous dependence revealed previously for attenuation of nutation of E’-centers in quartz in the two-photon regime at T=4.2 K. At the same time, the value of Γ measured with different values of τ is independent of B₁ and is equal to 1/T₁, where T₁ is the longitudinal relaxation time. A. N. Sevchenko Scientific Research Institute of Applied Physical Problems, 7, Kurchatov St., Minsk, 220064, Belarus. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 65, No. 3, pp. 405–411, May–June, 1998.     

Properties of the HYSCORE spin echo signal

In hyperfine sublevel correlation spectroscopy (HYSCORE), the finite duration of the microwave pulses leads to an incomplete inversion of the electron spin magnetization by the third pulse, which results in a significant admixture of stimulated ESEEM to HYSCORE ESEEM. This virtually unavoidable contribution of stimulated ESEEM seriously hampers the analysis of the modulation amplitudes in HYSCORE. In this work, we analyze the properties of the spin echo signals contributing to the composite HYSCORE signal. Based on this analysis, we propose the strategies of HYSCORE data acquisition and processing that allow one to practically eliminate the contribution of the stimulated echo and make the HYSCORE ESEEM analyzable in quantitative terms.