Saturation inhomogeneous

Saturation as described above can be observed either when all the molecules in the initial state have the same absorption probability, or when some of the state population is preferentially absorbed, depending on the spatial orientation of the molecules or on their transition frequency, selected from a certain frequency interval. The first case is called homogeneous line saturation, the second is due to inhomogeneous saturation or hole-burning. This different cases will be explained in more detail by discussing some relevant experiments. 

On the other hand, Schaefer ( ) has shown from selective saturation experiments of amorphous cis polyisoprene, crystalline trans polyisoprene, as well as carbon black filled cis polyisoprene, that the resonant lines are homogeneous. The linewidths in these cases are thus not caused by inhomogeneous broadening resulting from equivalent nuclei being subject to differing local magnetic fields. The results for these systems are thus contrary in part to what has been found here. 

Molecules in crystals or dispersed in host lattices are often present in a range of environments, and this results in a broadening of the electronic absorption spectrum. Such an inhomogeneously broadened absorption band (envelope of transitions) may be considered as a superposition of several distinguishable sites. A narrow line laser can saturate one of the transitions under the envelope and the corresponding molecules will no longer take part in the absorption process. This phenomenon is referred to as hole... 

H. S. Taylor has laid great stress on this inhomogeneity of catalytic surfaces. He suggests that the atoms constituting a metallic surface can exist in different degrees of saturation, varying from that which would be characteristic of a perfect plane crystal face down to that of a single atom attached at one point only. This would lead one to suppose that adsorption occurs not uniformly over the surface but predominantly on certain active points of the surface. We shall have evidence in favour of this view in a later section. 

Recently, Bonin and Simpson (2007) showed in their study that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons sorptive behavior could not be solely attributed to a specific SOM chemical characteristic (i.e., aliphaticity or aromaticity) and concluded that both structure and OM physical conformation are important in sorption processes. Martin-Neto et al. (1994b) used analysis of microwave power saturation curves (Weil et al., 1994) to obtain information about HA conformation. They observed that at pH > 3.5 a typical curve of homogeneous saturation was obtained for the oxisol HA, whereas at pH 2.3 inhomogeneous saturation occurred. The peat HA showed only homogeneous saturation. However, a similar inhomogeneous trend ... 

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