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Long-Lived Heteronuclear Spin-Singlet States in Liquids at a Zero Magnetic field

M. Emondts, M. P. Ledbetter, S. Pustelny, T. Theis, B. Patton, J. W. Blanchard, M. C. Butler, D. Budker, and A. Pines
Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 077601 – Published 18 February 2014
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Abstract

We report an observation of long-lived spin-singlet states in a CH113 spin pair in a zero magnetic field. In C13-labeled formic acid, we observe spin-singlet lifetimes as long as 37 s, about a factor of 3 longer than the T1 lifetime of dipole polarization in the triplet state. In contrast to common high-field experiments, the observed coherence is a singlet-triplet coherence with a lifetime T2 longer than the T1 lifetime of dipole polarization in the triplet manifold. Moreover, we demonstrate that heteronuclear singlet states formed between a H1 and a C13 nucleus can exhibit longer lifetimes than the respective triplet states even in the presence of additional spins that couple to the spin pair of interest. Although long-lived homonuclear spin-singlet states have been extensively studied, this is the first experimental observation of analogous singlet states in heteronuclear spin pairs.

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  • Received 23 September 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.077601

© 2014 American Physical Society

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Published 18 February 2014

Long-lived singlet states—zero-spin states made of two spin-1/2 particles—can be created by combining two different atomic species such as carbon and hydrogen.

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Authors & Affiliations

M. Emondts1,*, M. P. Ledbetter2,3,†, S. Pustelny2,4, T. Theis5,6, B. Patton2, J. W. Blanchard5,6, M. C. Butler5,6,‡, D. Budker2,7, and A. Pines5,6

  • 1Institute of Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Worringer Weg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany
  • 2Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 3AOSense, 767 North Mary Avenue, Sunnyvale, California 94085, USA
  • 4Center for Magneto-Optical Research, Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Reymonta 4, PL-30-059 Kraków, Poland
  • 5Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 6Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 7Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

  • *meike.emondts@rwth-aachen.de
  • micah.ledbetter@gmail.com
  • Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA.

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Issue

Vol. 112, Iss. 7 — 21 February 2014

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