A family of double-quantum excitation schemes is described for the solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) of near-equivalent spin-1/2 pairs. These new methods exploit the spinor behaviour of 2-level systems, whose signature is the change of sign of a quantum state upon a
2π rotation. The spinor behaviour is used to manipulate the phases of single-quantum coherences, in order to prepare a double-quantum precursor state which is rapidly converted into double-quantum coherence by a straightforward
π/2 rotation. One set of spinor-based methods exploits symmetry-based pulse sequences, while the other set exploits SLIC (spin-lock-induced crossing), in which the nutation frequency under a resonant radiofrequency field is matched to the spin-spin coupling. A variant of SLIC is introduced which is well-compensated for deviations in the radiofrequency field amplitude. The methods are demonstrated by performing double-quantum-filtered
19F NMR on a molecular system containing a pair of diastereotopic
19F nuclei. The new methods are compared with existing techniques.
Two-photon transient nutation is observed in a two-level spin system ( E ′ 1 centers in crystalline quartz) using a transverse microwave field and a linearly polarized rf field oriented along a static magnetic field in the electron paramagnetic resonance. Nutation is excited when the sum of the energies of a microwave photon and a rf photon is equal to the energy difference between two spin states. The two-photon nature of nutation is confirmed by measuring its frequency as a function of the amplitude and frequency of the rf field as well as the amplitude of the microwave field. The amplitude of the effective field of two-photon transitions is measured. It is shown that the decay rate of two-photon nutation is close to the decay rate for one-photon nutation and is determined by the spin-spin interaction between E ′ 1 centers.