Nuclear magnetic resonance scattering across interfaces via the dipolar demagnetizing field

The dipolar demagnetizing field in nuclear magnetic resonance of liquids is a convenient means of measuring the scattering function corresponding to a two-species spatial correlation function. In particular, the method applies where the distance to be measured is long compared to the diffusion length. Here we explore theoretically and experimentally the dipolar demagnetizing field scattering in the oil phase of a polydisperse oil/water emulsion. The initial spin grating is created in one phase, and the scattering from the other phase is observed. The experimental results confirm that structural properties of the system, including the average bubble size distribution, can be probed using the dipolar field. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.