OPTICAL FARADAY ROTATION STUDIES OF PARAMAGNETIC RESONANCE IN NEODYMIUM ETHYLSULPHATE

Abstract

The magneto-optical Faraday effect was used to measure the saturation of the spin levels in concentrated neodymium ethylsulphate in both steady-state and pulsed microwave resonance experiments at liquid helium temperatures. The steady-state experiments yielded the paramagnetic resonance spectrum consisting of a main triplet and an extensive hyperfine structure. The line positions are explained in terms of the known spin Hamiltonian of the diluted salt and spin–spin interaction between nearest neighbors. An asymmetry of the line shape was observed for sufficiently low temperatures in qualitative agreement with existing theories. Measurements of saturation s versus microwave power P at constant field and temperature were made and yielded the relationship [Formula: see text] for s > 10%. The steady-state experiments also revealed the existence of a spatial gradient in the saturation across the sample.The pulsed experiments gave the spin–lattice relaxation time τ as a function of magnetic field H at various temperatures. At 4.2 °K, τ was found to be independent of H and of the order of 11 msec for fields from 800 to [Formula: see text], while at temperatures below 2 °K, τ was found to be strongly field-dependent, indicating the importance of cross-relaxation effects at temperatures [Formula: see text].