title: Observation of 239Pu nuclear magnetic resonance.
abstract: In principle, the spin-½ plutonium-239 ((239)Pu) nucleus should be active in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. However, its signal has eluded detection for the past 50 years. Here, we report observation of a (239)Pu resonance from a solid sample of plutonium dioxide (PuO(2)) subjected to a wide scan of external magnetic field values (3 to 8 tesla) at a temperature of 4 kelvin. By mapping the external field dependence of the measured resonance frequency, we determined the nuclear gyromagnetic ratio (239)γ(n)(PuO(2))/2π to be 2.856 ± 0.001 megahertz per tesla (MHz/T). Assuming a free-ion value for the Pu(4+) hyperfine coupling constant, we estimated a bare (239)γ(n)/2π value of ~2.29 MHz/T, corresponding to a nuclear magnetic moment of μ(n) ≈ 0.15μ(N) (where μ(N) is the nuclear magneton).
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yasuoka
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Koutroulakis
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chudo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Richmond
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Veirs
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: E D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Jarvinen
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Clark