Fundamentals of Pulsed Nitrogen-14 Quadrupole Resonance

The essential features of nitrogen-14 Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance, a new tool based on density matrix calculations is proposed. After a brief review of the density matrix theory, it is demonstrated that, for each of the three NQR transitions, the (3,3) density matrix can be reduced to a (2,2) matrix, evidently easier to handle. (2,2) rotation matrices are defined for predicting, in a straightforward manner, the system evolution under a rf pulse. The first example treated by this methodology concerns nutation experiments (evolution of the signal amplitude as a function of the pulse length) and it is shown that the NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) flip angle, in the case of powder samples, should be substituted by a pseudo flip angle which is no longer proportional to the pulse length. Still for powder samples, it is demonstrated that, in NQR, data averaging continuously improves when shortening the repetition time. Finally it has been possible to define proper phase cycles in view of measuring relaxation times (T₁ and T₂) by a two-pulse sequence. In all cases, experimental verifications were performed in order to assess this methodology.