NMR shielding in helium-3 atoms modified by gaseous nitrogen and oxygen

Helium-3 nuclear magnetic resonance (³He NMR) measurements were carried out for the gaseous mixtures of helium-3 with pure nitrogen and synthetic air as the solvents. It was found that ³He shielding is linearly dependent on solvent density up to approx. 6 mol/L. At higher density of the gaseous solvent, the change of ³He shielding is nonlinear and especially distinct when helium-3 atoms can interact with two O₂ molecules. The interaction with paramagnetic oxygen molecules can induce two kinds of ³He shielding changes: (1) due to the isotropic Fermi contact interaction and (2) from the dipolar magnetic interaction between unpaired O₂ electrons and ³He nuclear magnetic dipole moment. The two paramagnetic effects in helium-3 shielding cannot be experimentally separated, although for such small molecular objects, they could be presumably modeled by advanced theoretical calculations.