Bismuth germanate as a perspective material for dielectric resonators in EPR spectroscopy

Towards high performance dielectric microwave resonators for X-band EPR spectroscopy

Microwave (MW) resonators in Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy concentrate the MW magnetic field (B1) at the sample and separate the MW electric field from the sample. There are numerous experimental methods in EPR spectroscopy which all impose different requirements on MW resonators (e.g. high or low quality factor, MW conversion, and B1-field homogeneity). Although commercial spectrometers offer standardized MW resonators for a broad application range, newly emerging and highly-specialized research fields push these spectrometers to or beyond their sensitivity limits. Optimizing the MW resonator offers one direct approach to improve the sensitivity. Here we present three low-cost optimization approaches for a commercially available X-band (9-10 GHz) MW resonator for three experimental purposes (continuous-wave (CW), transient and pulse EPR). We obtain enhanced MW conversion factors for all three optimized resonators and higher quality factors for two optimized resonators. The latter is important for CW and transient EPR. Furthermore, we fabricated a resonator which features an extended area of homogeneous B1-field and, hence, improved pulse EPR performance. Our results demonstrate that small changes to a commercial MW resonator can enhance its performance in general or for specific applications.

Improving B1 field homogeneity in dielectric tube resonators for EPR spectroscopy via controlled shaping of the dielectric insert

We propose an approach for improving the homogeneity of microwave magnetic field amplitude in a dielectric tube resonator for electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy at X-band. The improvement is achieved by "shaping" (controllable variation of the outer diameter of a dielectric insert along its axial direction). Various shaping scenarios based on the principle of discrete solenoids and electromagnetic calculations have been considered. The dielectric insert having the most promising shape was manufactured from a bismuth germanate single crystal. The shaped insert increases the area at B₁ > 0.9 B_1max from 5.06 to 7.36 mm. Higher sensitivity and lower likelihood of quantitative errors have been achieved in pulse EPR experiments for "long" samples (whose length was comparable to that of the dielectric insert) in a shaped dielectric insert.

Exchange interactions in photoinduced magnetostructural states of copper(ii)–nitroxide spin dyads

We investigate intra- and intercluster exchange couplings in photoinduced states of copper(ii)–nitroxide based molecular magnets (“breathing crystals”) using variable-temperature EPR spectroscopy.

Electronic Modulation of THz Radiation at NovoFEL: Technical Aspects and Possible Applications

The Novosibirsk Free Electron Laser (NovoFEL) facility is able to produce high-power tunable terahertz (THz) laser radiation in quasi-continuous mode. The ability to control/shape this THz radiation is required in a number of user experiments. In this work we propose a modulation approach suitable for free electron lasers based on recuperation design. It allows for generating THz macropulses of a desirable length, down to several microseconds (limited by a quality factor of FEL optical resonator). Using this approach, macropulses in the time window from several microseconds to several hundred microseconds have been shown for three possible frequency ranges: mid-infrared (~1100 cm⁻¹), far-infrared (~200 cm⁻¹) and THz (~40 cm⁻¹). In each case, the observed rise and decay of the macropulse have been measured and interpreted. The advantage of using short macropulses at the maximum peak power available has been demonstrated with the time-resolved Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy.

Room-temperature distance measurements using RIDME and the orthogonal spin labels trityl/nitroxide

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) based nanometer distance measurements at ambient temperatures are of particular interest for structural biology applications. The nitroxide spin labels commonly used in EPR reveal relatively short transverse relaxation under these conditions, which limits their use for detecting static dipolar interactions. At the same time, the longitudinal relaxation of nitroxide spin labels is still long enough to allow using them as 'pumped' species in the relaxation induced dipolar modulation enhancement (RIDME) experiment where the detection is carried out on the slower relaxing triarylmethyl (TAM) spin labels. In the present study, we report the first demonstration of room-temperature RIDME distance measurements in nucleic acids using TAM as the slow-relaxing detected species and traditional nitroxide as the fast-relaxing partner spin. Two types of immobilizers, glassy trehalose and the modified silica gel Nucleosil, were used for immobilization of the spin-labeled biomolecules. The room-temperature RIDME-based distance distributions are in good agreement with those measured at 80 K by other techniques. Room-temperature RIDME on the spin pairs trityl/nitroxide may become a useful method for the structural characterization of biomacromolecules and biomolecular complexes at near physiological temperatures.

X-band EPR setup with THz light excitation of Novosibirsk Free Electron Laser: Goals, means, useful extras

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) station at the Novosibirsk Free Electron Laser (NovoFEL) user facility is described. It is based on X-band (∼9 GHz) EPR spectrometer and operates in both Continuous Wave (CW) and Time-Resolved (TR) modes, each allowing detection of either direct or indirect influence of high-power NovoFEL light (THz and mid-IR) on the spin system under study. The optics components including two parabolic mirrors, shutters, optical chopper and multimodal waveguide allow the light of NovoFEL to be directly fed into the EPR resonator. Characteristics of the NovoFEL radiation, the transmission and polarization-retaining properties of the waveguide used in EPR experiments are presented. The types of proposed experiments accessible using this setup are sketched. In most practical cases the high-power radiation applied to the sample induces its rapid temperature increase (T-jump), which is best visible in TR mode. Although such influence is a by-product of THz radiation, this thermal effect is controllable and can deliberately be used to induce and measure transient signals of arbitrary samples. The advantage of tunable THz radiation is the absence of photo-induced processes in the sample and its high penetration ability, allowing fast heating of a large portion of virtually any sample and inducing intense transients. Such T-jump TR EPR spectroscopy with THz pulses has been previewed for the two test samples, being a useful supplement for the main goals of the created setup.

Understanding heme proteins with hyperfine spectroscopy

Heme proteins are versatile proteins that are involved in a large number of biological processes. Many spectroscopic methods are used to gain insight into the different mechanistic processes governing heme-protein functions. Since many (intermediate) states of heme proteins are paramagnetic, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) methods, such as hyperfine spectroscopy, offer unique tools for these investigations. This perspective gives an overview of the use of state-of-the-art hyperfine spectroscopy in heme research, focusing on the advantages, limits and challenges of the different techniques.