Fourier synthesized excitation of nuclear magnetic resonance with application to homonuclear decoupling and solvent line suppression

Abstract

A method is described for exciting a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum with a radio frequency source having any desired frequency spectrum. The frequency spectrum of the source is first specified and then Fourier synthesized to define a function which is used to modulate a radio frequency carrier. The NMR spectrum is obtained by Fourier transforming the response of the spin system to this excitation. The technique is applied to the problem of suppressing a strong solvent line while simultaneously observing all other resonance lines in a spectrum and to homonuclear decoupling while observing a complete spectrum.