New methodologies for computer simulation of paramagnetic resonance spectra

A new software package, SOPHE, for computer simulation of randomly oriented EPR spectra is described. A central feature of SOPHE is that all interactions associated with the electronic spins and major nuclear spins are treated equally through full matrix diagonalisation. In order to make this approach “workable”, several new methodologies have been developed, which include a novel partition scheme for partitioning the unit sphere, an interpolation scheme involving a combination of cubic spline and linear interpolations, and a segmentation method for handling multiple resonances between a given pair of energy levels. As a result, these new developments have led to a significant reduction in computational times. The SOPHE package can be used to simulate a variety of EPR spectra arising from isotropic organic radicals to complex coupled spin systems. It also incorporates the major linewidth models developed previously for the simulation of randomly oriented EPR spectra from magnetically isolated spin systems.