Facilities

Our service at Manchester has five spectrometer platforms, allowing continuous wave (c.w.) EPR at L, S, X, K, Q and W-band and pulsed EPR at S, X and Q-band.

These are:

• EMXPlus with 1.8 T electromagnet; for c.w. L-, X-, K- and Q-band.
• Elexsys E580 with 1.8 T electromagnet; for c.w. and pulsed S- and Q-band.
• Elexsys E580 with 1.8 T electromagnet; for c.w. and pulsed X-band.
• Elexsys E500 with 1.8 T superconducting magnet, for c.w. S-, X-, K- and Q-band
• EMX Micro X-band with 1.0 T electromagnet , for c.w. X-band EPR (77 K and above).

All of our pulsed capable platforms have an integrated AWG allowing for the shaping of pulses.

The S/Q band platform has the ability to use MPFU/AWG and ELDOR pulses simultaneously, removing coherency artefacts.

Pulsed techniques available are listed towards the bottom of this page.

Experimental options

• Sample cooling via both 'wet' and closed-cycle helium cryostats (Closed cycle: <2K at S-, K-, Q-band, 5K for other frequencies. Liquid Helium: 1.8 K at all frequencies, when required, 4.2 K typical)
• Sample heating (to 500 K) at X-band
• Single crystal mounts and goniometers
• Flow cells for probing short-lived or regenerated samples
• Flat cells and Bruker AQUA X multibore tubing for handling highly dielectric samples
• Parallel and perpendicular mode modulation at X-band
• In situ electrochemical generation at all frequencies
• In situ photolysis (X-, S- and Q-band) using a ND-YAG Minilite laser (harmonics of 1064 nm, 100 mJ max power, 1-15 Hz) and spin echo detection
• In situ irradiation (X-, S- and Q-band) using an OPOtek Radiant 355 SE tunable OPO (210- 2400 nm, 40 mJ max power, 10 Hz) and spin echo detection

The Facility has a sample preparation room available in the Photon Science Institute, equipped with fume hood and Schlenck line, and also full access to the chemical laboratories in the adjacent Department of Chemistry. Therefore, we can handle a wide range of sample types, including samples that are sensitive to temperature, atmosphere, light, solvent loss, and a wide range of sample hazards, including toxic, biological and low-level radioactive materials.

Collaborative arrangements for other experiments

• Pulsed W-band spectroscopy, in collaboration with Professor Christiane Timmel at the University of Oxford CAESR group.
• Pulsed methods, including at high frequency, with Dr G. Smith at the St Andrews HIPER project.
• Very high frequency (53 GHz to >1 THz; 0 – 16 T; 1.5 to 280 K) c.w. EPR, with Dr A-L. Barra of the LNCMI (high magnetic field laboratory) CNRS in Grenoble.
• Frequency domain EPR (100 – 850 GHz; 1.8 – 300 K) spectrometer, with Prof J. van Slageren, University of Stuttgart.

Available pulsed techniques

Pulsed techniques to be available at S, X and Q-band.