Spin-conversion relaxation in dimethyl-s-tetrazine doped n-octane: Deuteration and symmetry breaking

Spectral hole burning is used to measure spin-conversion relaxation of methyl groups attached to a dye probe. The dye is dimethyl-s-tetrazine, the host is n-octane, which is, at low temperatures, a Shpol’skii-matrix. The temperature dependence of the spin-conversion relaxation follows the same pattern for the protonated and the perdeuterated methyl-rotor. However, the relaxation rates of the perdeuterated rotor are higher by almost two orders of magnitude. Partial deuteration destroys the rotor symmetry and leads to a breakdown of the correlation between nuclear spin and rotational wave function.