Honors Theses and Capstones

Date of Award

Spring 2023

Project Type

Capstone

College or School

CEPS

Department

Physics - Nuclear Group

Program or Major

Physics

First Advisor

Dr. Karl Slifer

Abstract

Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) is a method by which the spins of electrons are specifically targeted by microwaves at resonance frequency in order to induce spin flips. Occasionally, the electron spins couple with nuclear spins and nuclear spin flips are induced. The relaxation time of the electron is significantly lower than that of the nuclei, which allows for large polarization. The main goal of the Slifer Lab is to utilize specifically prepared crystalline structures in order to separate the convoluted energy transitions ("Batman Peak") in the deuterium's nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal, which would allow for tensor enhancement of deuterium. The goal of this project was to determine the polarizations of deuterium under different conditions from a previously taken experimental data and to determine a calibration constant that scales the area under an NMR curve to the polarization. Also, by determining the polarization of deuterium by separate methods, the calibration constant and an independent ratio method, the consistency of the data is checked. The ratio method produced a polarization (0.23287671) that was almost double (~1.73x) that of the calibration constant (0.13569978). The ratio method is similar to that of a trusted, independent line-shape method, which indicates an error in the determination of the calibration constant. The source of these issues will be explored further at the end of this paper.

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