Nuclear magnetic resonance in condensed matter
Resonancia magnética nuclear en materia condensada
- Date
- 1946 · confidence high
- Place
- Stanford University, California / Harvard, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- Felix Bloch; Edward Purcell; Isidor Rabi
- People
- 👤 Edward Mills Purcell1912–1997👤 Felix Bloch1905–1983👤 Isidor Isaac Rabi1898–1988
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Atomic nuclei in a magnetic field absorb radiofrequency at a characteristic frequency that depends on their chemical environment. It turns nuclear spin into a probe of the structure of molecules and tissues.
Bloch and Purcell achieved it independently weeks apart; Nobel Prize shared in 1952.
What it led to
- NMR spectroscopy in chemistry
- Magnetic resonance imaging (Lauterbur, Mansfield, 1973)
- Atomic clocks and magnetometers
- NMR quantum computing
Built on
- Space quantization (Stern-Gerlach experiment)1922
- Nuclear spin
- Rabi's molecular beam resonance method (1938)
- Second World War radar technology
Made possible
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)1973-1977
- Medical magnetic resonance imaging
- NMR spectrometer
- Proton magnetometer