The response of a single-spin system in the NMR condition to irradiation with two strong electromagnetic resonant waves has been observed. Multiple quantum lines involving up to 27 quanta have been detected. The interpretation of the spectrum by the second-quantization formalism is given.
A general theory has been developed to calculate the response, in NMR conditions, of a spin system irradiated by two nearly resonant waves having different frequencies and intense enough to produce an appreciable saturation. The absorption signal has been calculated employing the statistical operator technique, treating the electromagnetic field by the second quantization formalism. Two kinds of transitions are expected: The first one arises from processes in which n photons of one wave are emitted and n photons of the other wave are absorbed, the second one arises from processes involving the emission of n photons of one wave and the absorption of n ± 1 photons of the other. In the first case all the transitions coalesce in a single dispersionlike signal, which occurs when the frequencies of the two waves are nearly the same; in the second case a many-line spectrum occurs in which emission and absorption lines are present. The experimental results here reported strictly agree with theoretical previsions.
Experimentally achievable conditions where only weak off-resonant fields are used to excite coherence in a two-level system are explored. A brief review of previous theoretical results useful in treating multifrequency irradiation sequences is provided. Using an approximation method based on the Floquet formalism we derive an expression for the effective field strength as a function of the phases and amplitudes of the applied irradiation fields. Some of these results are rederived and/or explained in a simplified manner. Under conditions of four-frequency irradiation, three-photon excitation of a two-level system in NMR is experimentally demonstrated on the spin-1/2 system of the 31P nucleus in phosphoric acid. The behavior of the three-photon resonance is explored as a function of all important experimental parameters. The results of these tests conform closely to the theoretical predictions. Possible uses of multifrequency irradiation schemes in NMR are suggested.
The expression for the absorption coefficient in two-photon resonance transitions is deduced under general conditions. No particular restrictions are imposed on the level system or on the frequencies and intensities of the fields. The following cases are considered: (i) a two-level system (with and without singularities) irradiated by a single wave and (ii) a three-level system irradiated by two waves. Some theoretical and experimental disagreements reported by authors of previous papers are examined and clarified by the present theory.
Two-photon transitions in a nearly resonant three-level spin system are experimentally investigated at microwave frequencies by detecting the second harmonic (SH) wave emitted by a resonant paramagnetic spin sample. The dependence of the SH intensity and lineshape on the detuning of the intermediate level from the resonance is measured in a dilute ruby sample (Cr 3+ :Al 2 O 3 ). It is shown that the SH output is the coherent superposition of two different contributions which come, respectively, from processes which involve all three levels and from Raman-like processes to which the intermediate level does not take part. The dependence on the intensity and polarisation of the input radiation is measured for each one of the two kinds of processes and interference effects between them are detected.
This is the second in a series of three papers on nonlinear resonance effects in multilevel quantum systems in which quantum-mechanical systems are considered that are under the influence of any number of classically described driving fields (well defined in amplitude and phase) and are in weak contact with a thermal reservoir, such that relaxation may be described by means of phenomenological decay constants. In the first paper, referred to as I, a projection-operator formalism was developed for separating the equation of motion for the density operator into a part which may be treated by conventional time-dependent perturbation techniques and another part which, because it would give rise to secular terms using a time-dependent perturbation theory, must be treated by more exact means. In this paper three applications of the formalism developed in I are considered. The first application is to a system in which a multiple-quantum transition is taking place between two levels of the system which contains many levels between the two levels under consideration. In particular, the transition probability is calculated for these two levels, which are not directly connected by matrix elements of the interaction but are connected indirectly through intermediate states. The next application considered is the Raman effect in a four-level system. As a final application of the formalism developed in I an expression is derived for the magnetization M+(t)=Mx(t)+iMy(t) of a system of N noninteracting spins under the influence of a static field in the z direction and an arbitrary number of rf fields in the x direction. As in I, a phenomenological form is assumed for the relaxation in all of these applications. It is shown in this problem that fields which are not involved in directly causing transitions in this system give rise to frequency shifts in the resonance conditions, which are accounted for in this treatment in a very natural and straightforward manner. For these fields, the rotating as well as the counter-rotating fields give shifts in the resonance condition.