Development of a magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance probe with a cryogenic detection system for sensitivity enhancement

A novel nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) probe for high-resolution solid-state NMR has been developed. In this probe, temperature of the detection coil is kept at cryogenic temperature (approximately 12 K) for sensitivity enhancement, which is achieved not only by suppression of thermal noise but also by increment of a Q factor of the coil. A marked feature of this probe is that a sample rotating at magic angle is thermally isolated from the cryogenic system in order to realize high-resolution solid-state NMR measurement at various sample temperatures. We call this system as cryocoil magic-angle spinning (cryocoil MAS). (1)H MAS NMR with the coil temperature of approximately 20 K was successfully observed for solid adamantane rotating at room temperature, and signal-to-noise increment due to this cryocoil approach was confirmed.