High-resolution NMR of static samples by rotation of the magnetic field

Mechanical rotation of a sample at 54.7degrees with respect to the static magnetic field, so-called magic-angle spinning (MAS), is currently a routine procedure in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The technique enhances the spectral resolution by averaging away anisotropic spin interactions thereby producing isotropic-like spectra with resolved chemical shifts and scalar Couplings. It should be possible to induce similar effects in a static sample if the direction of the magnetic field is varied, e.g., magic-angle rotation of the B-0 field (B-0-MAS). Here, this principle is experimentally demonstrated in a static sample of solid hyperpolarized xenon at similar to3.4mT. By extension to moderately high fields, it is possible to foresee interesting applications in situations where physical manipulation of the sample is inconvenient or impossible. Such situations are expected to arise in many cases from materials to biomedicine and are particularly relevant to the novel approach of ex situ NMR spectroscopy and imaging. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.