Spin Hamiltonian method

The method presented here for evaluating energy levels from the spin Hamiltonian and then determining the allowed transitions is quite general and can be applied to more complex systems by using the appropriate spin Hamiltonian. Of particular interest in surface studies are molecules for which the g values, as well as the hyperfine coupling constants, are not isotropic. These cases will be discussed in the next two sections. 

Average or effective Hamiltonian theory, as introduced to NMR spectroscopy by Waugh and coworkers [55] in the late 1960s, has in all respects been the most important design tool for development of dipolar recoupling experiments (and many other important experiments). In a very simple and transparent manner, this method facilitates delineation of the impact of advanced rf irradiation schemes on the internal nuclear spin Hamiltonians. This impact is evaluated in an ordered fashion, enabling direct focus on the most important terms and, in the refinement process, the less dominant albeit still important terms in a prioritized manner. 

Recent solid state NMR studies of liquid crystalline materials are surveyed. The review deals first with some background information in order to facilitate discussions on various NMR (13C, ll, 21 , I9F etc.) works to be followed. This includes the following spin Hamiltonians, spin relaxation theory, and a survey of recent solid state NMR methods (mainly 13C) for liquid crystals on the one hand, while on the other hand molecular ordering of mesogens and motional models for liquid crystals. NMR studies done since 1997 on both solutes and solvent molecules are discussed. For the latter, thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals are included with an emphasis on newly discovered liquid crystalline materials. For the solute studies, both small molecules and weakly ordered biomolecules are briefly surveyed. 

In this section analytical expressions for ENDOR transition frequencies and intensities will be given, which allow an adequate description of ENDOR spectra of transition metal complexes. The formalism is based on operator transforms of the spin Hamiltonian under the most general symmetry conditions. The transparent first and second order formulae are expressed as compact quadratic and bilinear forms of simple equations. Second order contributions, and in particular cross-terms between hf interactions of different nuclei, will be discussed for spin systems possessing different symmetries. Finally, methods to determine relative and absolute signs of hf and quadrupole coupling constants will be summarized. 

For the evaluation of energy levels, ENDOR frequencies and nuclear transition probabilities from the spin Hamiltonian (3.1), we apply the generalized operator transform method, published by Schweiger et al.55, which is only based on the assumptions 3fEZ > and 2fhfs s> 3 Q. No restrictions are made on the relative magnitudes of 3 hfs and... 

Although the same nuclear spin interactions are present in solid-state as in solution-state NMR, the manifestations of these effects are different because, in the solid, the anisotropic contribution to the spin interactions contributes large time-independent terms to the Hamiltonian that are absent in the liquid phase. Therefore, the experimental methods employed in solids differ from the ones in the liquid state. The spin Hamiltonian for organic or biological solids can be described in the usual rotating frame as the sum of the following interactions ... 

Electron spin resonance (ESR) measures the absorption spectra associated with the energy states produced from the ground state by interaction with the magnetic field. This review deals with the theory of these states, their description by a spin Hamiltonian and the transitions between these states induced by electromagnetic radiation. The dynamics of these transitions (spin-lattice relaxation times, etc.) are not considered. Also omitted are discussions of other methods of measuring spin Hamiltonian parameters such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR), although results obtained by these methods are included in Sec. VI. 

It is sometimes possible to obtain the parameters of the spin Hamiltonian from powders or frozen solutions. This method has been used primarily for 5= systems, which is the system we shall consider here. If the system has axial symmetry with no hyperfine interaction, the magnetic field is given by the equation... 

Thus it is possible under favorable circumstances to extract spin Hamiltonian parameters from frozen solution spectra. The methods used here can,... 

To obtain the hyperfine terms in the spin Hamiltonian we use the method of Sec. III.D ... 

Using these functions, we can obtain by methods discussed in Sec. Ill the following equations for the spin Hamiltonian parameters ... 

These values are in reasonable agreement with the values reported on the basis of far IR work (67a, 67b). In general the anisotropy measurements establish that the ligand field in the XFe(R2Dtc)2 complexes is rhombic and provide a method for estimating spin-Hamiltonian parameters. 

A combination of the two techniques was shown to be a useful method for the determination of solution structures of weakly coupled dicopper(II) complexes (Fig. 9.4)[119]. The MM-EPR approach involves a conformational analysis of the dimeric structure, the simulation of the EPR spectrum with the geometric parameters resulting from the calculated structures and spin hamiltonian parameters derived from similar complexes, and the refinement of the structure by successive molecular mechanics calculation and EPR simulation cycles. This method was successfully tested with two dinuclear complexes with known X-ray structures and applied to the determination of a copper(II) dimer with unknown structure (Fig. 9.5 and Table 9.9)[119]. 

A new treatment for S = 7/2 systems has been undertaken by Rast and coworkers [78, 79]. They assume that in complexes with ligands like DTPA, the crystal field symmetry for Gd3+ produces a static ZFS, and construct a spin Hamiltonian that explicitly considers the random rotational motion of the molecular complex. They identify a magnitude for this static ZFS, called a2, and a correlation time for the rotational motion, called rr. They also construct a dynamic or transient ZFS with a simple correlation function of the form (BT)2 e t/TV. Analyzing the two Hamiltonians (Rast s and HL), it can be shown that at the level of second order, Rast s parameter a2 is exactly equivalent to the parameter A. The method has been applied to the analysis of the frequency dependence of the line width (ABpp) of GdDTPA. These results are compared to a HL treatment by Clarkson et al. in Table 2. 

The above experimental developments represent powerful tools for the exploration of molecular structure and dynamics complementary to other techniques. However, as is often the case for spectroscopic techniques, only interactions with effective and reliable computational models allow interpretation in structural and dynamical terms. The tools needed by EPR spectroscopists are from the world of quantum mechanics (QM), as far as the parameters of the spin Hamiltonian are concerned, and from the world of molecular dynamics (MD) and statistical thermodynamics for the simulation of spectral line shapes. The introduction of methods rooted into the Density Functional Theory (DFT) represents a turning point for the calculations of spin-dependent properties [7],... 

The spin-Hamiltonian VB theory rests on the same principles as the qualitative theory presented in Chapter 3, with some further simplifying assumptions. This chapter describes the method and focuses on its qualitative applications. 

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