Controlling absorption of gamma radiation via nuclear level anticrossing

A significant reduction of absorption for single gamma photons has been experimentally observed by studying M?ssbauer spectra of 57Fe in a FeCO3 crystal. The experimental results have been explained in terms of a quantum interference effect involving nuclear level anticrossing due to the presence of a combined magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole interaction.     

Rapid identification of common hexapyranose monosaccharide units by a simple TOCSY matching approach

Solution NMR spectroscopy is a well established technique for non-destructive characterization of the structures and conformations of complex oligo- and polysaccharides. One of the key experiments involves the use of 2D TOCSY to collect the 1H spins into groups that can be associated with the individual saccharide units that are present in the molecule under study. It is well known that the magnetization transfer rate through the 1H spin system during the TOCSY spin lock period is sensitive to the intervening 3J(H,H) scalar couplings, and therefore also to the saccharide stereochemistry. Here, we have investigated the potential to extract information on the stereochemistry of hexapyranose monosaccharide units directly from TOCSY spectra. Through a systematic experimental investigation of the magnetization transfer initiated from the anomeric 1H resonance in D-glucose, D-galactose and D-mannose it is shown that a 100 ms spin lock time provides optimal spectroscopic discrimination between these three commonly occurring building blocks. A simple matching scheme is proposed as a new tool for rapid attribution of the TOCSY traces originating from the anomeric 1H resonances towards the underlying monosaccharide type. The scheme appears robust with regard to structural variations and fairly tolerant to incidental overlap. Its application provides useful guidance during the subsequent NMR assignment process, as demonstrated with the PS7F polysaccharide from Streptococcus pneumonia. In addition, we show that our scheme affords a clear-cut distinction between the alpha- and beta-epimers of D-mannose-type units, which can be difficult to discriminate by NMR analysis. Application to the N-glycan 100.2 demonstrates the potential and wide applicability of this new discrimination approach.     

Slowing down of gamma photons

Hyperfine Interactions - By a transformation to a rotating reference system, a nuclear level mixing scheme is equivalent to a scheme with pure quadrupole splitting and a strong RF-drive between...     

Level mixing induced transparency

We discuss level mixing induced transparency (LMIT), which is experimentally found in a thick absorber of FeCO₃ containing the ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer nuclei. LMIT is observed if two hyperfine levels of the excited state nucleus cross. Absorption of gamma radiation drops by about 25% with respect to the sum of two overlapping absorption lines. The absorption deficit is explained by the mixing of the crossing levels with a symmetry breaking interaction. The level mixing induces a polarization change of the scattered radiation. In such a way, the radiation develops in “normal modes,” which are less absorbed in a thick absorber. We show that, in spite of the absorption drop, the area of the absorption line does not change. This confirms the general knowledge that interference phenomena (destructive or constructive) do not change the lifetime of an excited state particle (atom, nucleus, etc).     

Group velocity in a nuclear EIT-like Λ scheme and comparison with optical EIT

The group velocity of gamma radiation scattered in the forward direction by a nuclear lambda scheme experiencing level mixing induced transparency, which shows some similarity to optical EIT, has been investigated. The equations for the nuclear coherences governing the group velocity have been solved. The group velocity decreases with the density of the resonant nuclei and with a decrease in the intensity of the mixing interaction. A comparison between the group velocity of the gamma radiation and the probe radiation in “classical” optical EIT conditions has been made.     

Induced Transparency for Gamma Radiation via Nuclear Level Mixing

A significant reduction of absorption of single gamma photons has been observed using the Mössbauer spectra of ⁵⁷Fe in a FeCO₃ crystal. The absorption deficit can be ascribed to partially destructive interference for absorption because of two indistinguishable absorption paths. The necessary coherence is created by means of level mixing produced by a suitable combination of a magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole interaction.     

Level mixing induced transparency for gamma radiation

The propagation of gamma radiation through a resonant medium in the case of interfering quantum transition paths is considered. The interference is made possible by a field that mixes the crossing spin levels in the excited nuclear state and splits two degenerate transitions into two V-type transitions. If forward resonant scattering allows for a change of the gamma radiation polarization, then the two V-transitions are coupled, which results in destructive interference. In this case the absorption is reduced in a particular frequency domain. PACS 42.50.Gy; 33.45.+x     

Level mixing induced transparency II. Different transition probabilities of the crossing lines

In one of our previous papers (R.N. Shakhmuratov et al. Appl. Phys. B. 81, 883 (2005)) we presented a new type of spatiotemporal interference of gamma radiation propagating in a resonant medium. The excitation scheme consists of two identical V-schemes, each being formed by one type of the transition: one is induced only by the left circular polarized field and the other by the right circular polarized field. The coupling of these V-schemes through level crossing allows resonant scattering of a photon in the forward direction with a change of its polarization. As a result the radiation field, which is resonant with a transition from the ground state to one of the two sublevels of the excited state, develops in a particular combination of radiation fields with left and right circular polarizations, called a normal mode. This combination is much less absorbed in subsequent layers of the absorber. For identical V-schemes, the structure of the modes is fairly simple. In this paper, we show that a similar reduction of absorption is realized for non-identical V-schemes, differing in transition strengths. The structure of the normal modes is found and they have a more complicated form. This general case is actually realized in a level crossing experiment in gamma optics. PACS 42.50.Gy; 33.45.+x     

Intermolecular interaction studies using small volumes

We present the use of 1-mm room-temperature probe technology to perform intermolecular interaction studies using chemical shift perturbation methods and saturation transfer difference (STD) spectroscopy using small sample volumes. The use of a small sample volume (5-10 μl) allows for an alternative titration protocol where individual samples are prepared for each titration point, rather than the usual protocol used for a 5-mm probe setup where the ligand is added consecutively to the solution containing the protein or host of interest. This allows for considerable economy in the consumption and cost of the protein and ligand amounts required for interaction studies. For titration experiments, the use of the 1-mm setup consumes less than 10% of the ligand amount required using a 5-mm setup. This is especially significant when complex ligands that are only available in limited quantities, typically because they are obtained from natural sources or through elaborate synthesis efforts, need to be investigated. While the use of smaller volumes does increase the measuring time, we demonstrate that the use of commercial small volume probes allows the study of interactions that would otherwise be impossible to address by NMR.