ISSN:
1089-7623
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
,
Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
Notes:
A method is developed to detect electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) transient signals with frequency components in the range from dc to 1 MHz and a low initial signal-to-noise ratio (e.g., 0.1 after one sweep). This method uses 200-kHz magnetic field modulation on a conventional EPR spectrometer, using a modified lock-in detector: the tuned amplifier is replaced by a broadband preamplifier with a high-pass filter and the low-pass filter of the lock-in detector is replaced by a broadband amplifier. The transients are generated incoherently from the magnetic field modulation, and subsequently averaged. The function of the (removed) low-pass filter is taken over by the averaging. An instrumental response time of less than 1 μs is obtained. This was determined by measuring the rise time of the triplet state of the photosynthetic reaction center of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides R-26 at 165 K. This method, direct detection, and high-frequency (1–2 MHz) modulation are discussed. The S/N ratio of the method described in this paper is similar to that of the other two methods. However, when large linewidths (〉0.5 mT) are met, it gives a superior S/N ratio as compared to high-frequency (1–2 MHz) modulation methods, due to the higher maximum modulation amplitude. When the transients of interest contain frequency components in the low-frequency noise regime (dc–50 kHz), the described method is to be preferred over direct detection because of its better S/N ratio.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1139624
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