Nuclear magnetic resonance and relaxation

the long version

This book provides an introduction to the general principles of nuclear magnetic resonance and relaxation, concentrating on simple models and their application. The author has produced an introduction to the ideas and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance. The concepts of relaxation and the time domain are particularly emphasised. Some relatively advanced topics are treated, but the approach is graduated and all points of potential difficulty are carefully explained. An introductory classical discussion of relaxation is followed by a quantum mechanical treatment, but without making explicit use of the density operator. Only when the principles of relaxation are firmly established is the density operator approach introduced; and then its power becomes apparent. A selection of case studies is considered in depth, providing applications of the ideas developed in the text. There are a number of appendices, including one on random functions, to help the reader understand some of the more specialised aspects of the subject. This treatment of one of the most important experimental techniques in modern science will be of great value to final-year undergraduates, students and researchers using nuclear magnetic resonance, particularly physicists, and especially those involved in the study of condensed matter physics.