NMR shielding in helium-3 atoms modified by gaseous nitrogen and oxygen

Abstract

Helium-3 nuclear magnetic resonance (He-3 NMR) measurements were carried out for the gaseous mixtures of helium-3 with pure nitrogen and synthetic air as the solvents. It was found that He-3 shielding is linearly dependent on solvent density up to approx. 6 mol/L. At higher density of the gaseous solvent, the change of He-3 shielding is nonlinear and especially distinct when helium-3 atoms can interact with two O-2 molecules. The interaction with paramagnetic oxygen molecules can induce two kinds of He-3 shielding changes: (1) due to the isotropic Fermi contact interaction and (2) from the dipolar magnetic interaction between unpaired O-2 electrons and He-3 nuclear magnetic dipole moment. The two paramagnetic effects in helium-3 shielding cannot be experimentally separated, although for such small molecular objects, they could be presumably modeled by advanced theoretical calculations.