Abstract

Since magnetic resonance spectroscopy was discovered 50 years ago, it has become a well-established field with a large number of applications that extend from physics over chemistry and biology into medicine. Today, a large array of extremely sophisticated experimental techniques are available, in particular in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Probably the biggest remaining problem of the field is its inherently low sensitivity, which requires a large number of spins in a sample. Laser radiation allows the sensitivity of magnetic resonance spectroscopy to be increased by many orders of magnitude, as experiments on single molecular spins [1,2] have dramatically demonstrated. In addition, the use of laser radiation provides the possibility to obtain spectra from electronically excited states that are not populated in thermal equilibrium, or from selected spatial regions like interfaces [3]. Another interesting aspect of laser-assisted NMR is that it provides information on the chemical environment of the spins, on crystal defects, or on the energy level structure of the spins, which may not be available by conventional magnetic resonance techniques [4].

© 1996 Optical Society of America