High-Field Pulsed ENDOR with Intra-cavity Radiofrequency Coil

This study compares the performance of two coil configurations for W-band pulsed ENDOR using a setup with both a radiofrequency 'hairpin' coil internal to a microwave non-radiative resonator and Helmholtz-like coils external to the resonator. Evaluation of the different coil performances is achieved via the ENDOR study of two model systems. The efficiencies of the coil configurations are first investigated numerically, showing that a higher radiofrequency current-to-magnetic field conversion factor can be achieved with the intra-cavity coil, with a similar radiofrequency magnetic field uniformity. This result is then confirmed by the broadband ENDOR spectra acquired with the two coil arrangements. A gain in the signal-to-noise ratio enabled by the internal coil of about a factor 10 was observed. In some cases, the high conversion factor of the intra-cavity coil led to a saturation of the ENDOR transitions. The possibility to implement a similar intra-cavity radiofrequency coil configuration in higher field spectrometers is finally discussed.