Jonathan F. Reichert is Emeritus Professor of Physics at SUNY at Buffalo; President and founder of Teachspin, Inc.; and Board Member and co-founder of the Advanced Laboratory Physics Association. His first experience with magnetic resonance experiments came in the 1950’s when he was a graduate student at Washington University when this was a new tool for physicists. Most of his forty year research career was spent doing some type of magnetic resonance experiments. At both CWRU and SUNY Buffalo, he developed and taught the advanced laboratory course. He shared in the design and construction of both PS1-A, B and PS2-A, TeachSpin’s pulsed NMR apparatus. Participants in the immersion will be using PS2-A, shown above, TeachSpin’s newest NMR spectrometer.
Dr. Jonathan F. Reichert, Teachspin, Inc., 2495 Main Street, Suite 409, Buffalo NY 14214-2153. Email: jreichert@teachspin.com. Telephone: 716-885-4701
The “Bloch Equation” will form the theoretical basis for this exploration of Pulsed Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. This will include effective fields in rotating coordinate systems, precession, spin-flips, relaxation processes, spin echoes, and Fourier transform spectroscopy. Pulsed NMR remains one of the most important experimental tools for physicists, since it provides a unique non-invasive probe to study both the internal structure and motions of solids and liquids with magnetic nuclei. PNMR is the basis of powerful medical and biological imaging devices with wide applicability.
The session will begin with the observation of a classical model of both precession and spin-flip using the “Magnetic Torque” (TeachSpin) apparatus. Participants will then perform single-pulse experiments on liquids to familiarize themselves with tuning the spectrometer. The heart of the “Immersion” will be the measurement of the spin-spin and spin-lattice relaxation times of a series of copper sulfate doped water samples. Time permitting, we will tune the spectrometer for fluorine samples and study the FFT signals from various liquids.
Participants will gain experience in RF tuning and matching circuits, use of magnetic field gradient coils, and FFT spectroscopy. They should bring to the session their own scientific hand calculator and some sort of data book.