NUCLEAR QUADRUPOLE RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY

Abstract

Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) uses radio-frequency (RF) magnetic fields to induce and detect transitions between sublevels of a nuclear ground state, a description that also applies to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). NMR refers to the situation where the sublevel energy splitting is predominantly due to a nuclear interaction with an applied static magnetic field, while NQR refers to the case where the predominant splitting is due to an interaction with electric field gradients within the material. So-called ``pure NQR'' refers to the common case when there is no static magnetic field at all.