Syllabus Accompanying Text: Cowan, Brian. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Relaxation Structure: Homeworks.

There will be problem sets and solutions to those problems posted. I will grade assignments if emailed to me by the deadline. The homeworks are designed to be instructive - perhaps moreso than the notes. Hopefully some design challenges will be given toward the end of the course as well. Quizzettes: There will be periodic quizzettes to get us thinking together about the same things. Only after sufficient quizzettes and problem sets are up will I proceed to post an animated lecture which covers the previously shared materials. Here is a link to a blog I had previously that will be used to facilitate the course. http://altoidnerd.wordpress.com/category/pedagogy/

Book, and story Note: Cowan has adopted an unorthodox convention for the impedance of inductors and capacitors which I will NOT use. Namely, I will stick with Z_L = j w L and Z_C = -j / (wC), where j is the imaginary unit, If this is foreign to you, do not fret, impedance of AC circuits will be given much attention. This course will cover NMR theory, but will truly focus on how NMR is done, how NMR spectrometers are constructed, and what we can learn from NMR experiments, as well as how they are conceived. NMR itself is a phenomenon, the spectroscopy of NMR transitions is an art. This is an account of the way I understand these phenomenon and MY personal bag of tricks - for both the theory, and the practice. In quantum mechanics, there is usually more than one way to interpret a problem. This is MY way, and my lineage to Cowan and Sullivan is to thank for my views on the matter. In cases where the notes are referring to general physics concepts that are unknown to the student, he or she is encouraged to try and do the necessary research to catch up, but is also welcome to ask me personally or fellow classmates for help. General physics concepts that need brushing up can be covered in supplementary notes on an as needed basis, even if only for personal use of a single student. Just ask - you are not going to be familiar with everything I write because there is more than one way to do NMR and again, this is my way, So just ask . Do not be shy, I will help as much as I can. The course will be taught in the language of physics. Chemists and scientists in other fields have varying terminology to describe some of these concepts. I cannot help my upbringing and hope we can adapt. The course will be self contained, and quantum mechanics will NOT be assumed. Knowledge of Newtonian dynamics and some electromagnetic concepts will be assumed. Format: I will post colorful notes and/or videos and have assignments for students to work through. I will comment on and correct your individual solutions and post solution sets. I think that is the best we can do at this point.

I will mostly follow the notation of Cowan's book but will not do topics in the same order. His book is highly recommended, and I will tell you why. I very much like Cowan's book. I learned NMR by simply doing - I was thrown into the pool, so to speak, by my teacher Prof. Neil Sullivan and forced to figure out how to really do NMR - instrumentation and all, from scratch. I took a liking to the seemingly familliar way Brian Cowan describes NMR in his book and was half way through the text when I noticed Neil Sullivan was mentioned in the Introduction. I discovered Cowan was Sullivan's Post-Doc in paris. I always thought to myself how brilliant I thought my instructor was. "Man, he must have written THE BOOK on NMR." Well he didn't, but it turned out he taught the man who did... This course amounts to an attempt to use the most classically oriented description possible to describe NMR. Although this seems paradoxical in light of the fact that the NMR phenomenon is entirely a quantum effect, there is must to be learned from pseudo-classical descriptions which are then adjusted in light of restrictions placed on, for examples energies, by quantum mechanics. The Bohr model is a good example, and in the case of NMR, we can figure out quite a bit by using a sort of franken-theory involving classical mechanics and electrodynamics, with what I would call "injections of quantum mechanics." In any case, we must learn to accept the pillars of quantum mechanics from time to time, and use them repeatedly, without thought, because as we move along, or it will not be possible to stay with the discussions without such. More info on an alternative course page and homeworks coming next week by friday, and I plan to post the first readings on Monday, 10 June. I will post notes twice each week and have assignments (obviously optional - but you'll get them graded if you do them) due approximately once per week, with a week or so given to complete the problems. I hope they will not take very long, but that will depend on your background. Tentative topics to be covered: The NMR concept 1.1 Gyroscopic precession 1.2 Classical spin-orbit coupling 1.3 Larmour Precession I 1.4 The magnetic moment concept 1.5 Particle motion and magnetism 1.6 Spin moments and the Bohr Magneton 1.3.1 Quantum mechanics basics and the Zeeman Effect 1.7 Nuclear spin and magnetic moments 1.8 LC circuits and spin kicking

Theory of NMR 2.1 Gyromagnetic ratios 2.2 Bloch Equations and the rotating frame 2.3 Magnetic susceptibility and NMR 2.4 The quadrupole interaction and NQR 2.4.1 Earth's field 2.4.2 NQR transitions for non-axial EFG's 2.4.3 NQR as a perturbation to The Zeeman effect, and vice versa 2.5 The relaxation parameters T1, T2, T2* 2.6 Spin lattice relaxation and spin echos 2.7 Fourier techniques in NMR Instrumentation and technique 3.0 Electronics, components, and a sketch of spectroscopy 3.1 Pulsed NMR basics 3.1.1 Spin kicking 3.1.2 Tank circuits, impedance matching, coil geometry 3.1.3 Superheterodyning 3.1.4 Duplexer circuits and tricks 3.1.5 Noise 3.1.6 Noise II 3.2 CW methods 3.2.1 The susceptibility and filling factor 3.2.2 Quenching oscillators 3.3 RF quirks 3.4 Signal amplification 3.5 Signal Processing 3.6 MRI, fourier techniques and 2-D NMR 3.6.1 The problem with high fields 3.6.2 Pulse sequences and Noise

3.7 Filters 3.7.1 The transient response problem 3.7.2 Phase locking tricks 3.7.3 Temperature considerations 3.8 NMR and industry 3.8.1 NQR and industry 3.8.2 NQR as a method of detecting arbitrary substances 3.8.3 Varactors, and diode clamps 3.8.4 Open problems in NQR: combing the desert