Integration of a versatile bridge concept in a 34 GHz pulsed/CW EPR spectrometer

Published

March 1, 2018

Author(s)

Alan H. Band, Matthew P. Donohue, Boris Epel, Shraeya Madhu, Veronika Szalai

Abstract

We present a 34 GHz continuous wave (CW)/pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer capable of pulse-shaping that is based on a novel microwave bridge design. The bridge radio frequency (RF)-in/RF-out design (500 MHz to 1 GHz input/output passband, 500 MHz instantaneous input/output bandwidth) uses two stages of up/down conversion to create a flexible platform with which to compare a variety of excitation and detection methods utilizing commercially available equipment external to the bridge. We use three sources of RF input to implement typical functions associated with CW and pulse EPR spectroscopic measurements. The bridge output is processed via high speed digitizer and an in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) demodulator for pulsed work or sent to a wideband, high dynamic range log detector for CW. Combining this bridge with additional commercial hardware and new acquisition and control electronics, we have designed and constructed an adaptable EPR spectrometer that builds upon previous work in the literature and is functionally comparable to commercially-available systems built using a different approach.

Citation

Journal of Magnetic Resonance

Volume

288

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmr.2018.01.010

Local Download

Keywords

Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, EPR spectroscopy, DEER, arbitrary waveform generator, 34 GHz EPR spectrometer, pulsed EPR spectrometer, PELDOR, EPR instrumentation

Citation

Band, A. , Donohue, M. , Epel, B. , Madhu, S. and Szalai, V. (2018), Integration of a versatile bridge concept in a 34 GHz pulsed/CW EPR spectrometer, Journal of Magnetic Resonance, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmr.2018.01.010, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=924055 (Accessed October 14, 2025)