Nuclear magnetic resonance energy levels

Both absorption and emission may be observed in each region of the spectrum, but in practice only absorption spectra are studied extensively. Three techniques are important for analytical purposes visible and ultraviolet spectrometry (electronic), infrared spectrometry (vibrational) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry (nuclear spin). The characteristic spectra associated with each of these techniques differ appreciably in their complexity and intensity. Changes in electronic energy are accompanied by simultaneous transitions between vibrational and rotational levels and result in broadband spectra. Vibrational spectra have somewhat broadened bands because of simultaneous changes in rotational energy, whilst nuclear magnetic resonance spectra are characterized by narrow bands. 

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is based on a phenomenon that nuclei which possess both magnetic and angular moments (i.e. have odd mass number or odd atomic number) interact with an applied magnetic field B0 yielding 21 + 1 (where 1 is the nuclear spin quantum number) energy levels with separation AE ... 

The experimental methods of Chapter 11, which contain the word "resonance" (e.g., "nuclear magnetic resonance" "electron paramagnetic resonance, etc.), refer to an allowed absorption or emission process (just as in optical spectroscopy), which is measured in a circuit electrically timed to the frequency for the quantum-mechanical transition. Of course, absorption or emission of light by an atom or molecule also occurs only if the light energy matches the energy level difference nevertheless, by tradition the term "resonance" is not used in that case. 

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