Digital Control of an FFC NMR Relaxometer Power Supply

The fast field cycling (FFC) experimental technique allows to overcome a technical difficulty associated with the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at low frequency spin-lattice relaxation measurements when using conventional NMR spectrometers. Constituting a step forward than the classical analog approaches, in this paper, a digital control system for an FFC-NMR relaxometer power supply was developed. The hardware and software were designed to allow for the modulation of the Zeeman field as required by this technique. Experimental results show that under digital control the system performs fast transitions between the high and low magnetic flux density levels, i.e., the switching times obtained are in the millisecond range, and, assures a good stability of the field during the steady states. Comparative proton relaxometry measurements in two compounds (liquid crystal 5CB and ionic liquid [BMIM]BF4) were made to assess the digital control system performance.