Millimeter-Wave High Power Pulse EPR Spectroscopy

Britt laboratory work published in Nature Communications

  • by Hasanbasri et al

The Britt lab has recently published (Hasanbasri et al) an article describing the construction and performance of a new high-power millimeter-wave pulse EPR spectrometer with applications to a series of high spin Mn(II) complexes. This 263 GHz instrument works at about 3 times the frequency/field of prior high-power pulse EPR instruments, with corresponding gains in sensitivity and resolution.  It is powered by a 10W vacuum tube amplifier (traveling wave tube) designed by the late Neville Luhmann Jr’s lab in UC Davis’s EECS department.  Thus, this advance is the direct result of cross college collaboration (L&S and Engineering) on the Davis campus. 

Optical lab bench with metal breadboard, mirrors, lenses, cables, and electronics

Pulse formation and amplification of the Britt lab mmWave high power pulse EPR spectrometer.   The 10 W TWT is the black rectangle in the center. In operation, the silver mu-metal shield surrounds the TWT to protect it from stray magnetic field from the 12T magnet in the adjacent room.