Lifetimes of long-lived states in inhomogeneous magnetic fields

Long-lived states (LLS), also known as singlet states, have been widely studied in the last decade. So far, LLS have only been observed in homogeneous magnetic fields, which preclude applications to many biological samples that are inherently inhomogeneous. We present a method to measure the lifetimes T-LLS of long-lived states in inhomogeneous magnetic fields, which combines established sequences for the excitation of LLS with their conversion into long-lived coherences (LLC) that can be detected by windowed acquisition. The method is applied to a pair of diastereotopic scalar-coupled protons of glycine in the dipeptide Alanine-Glycine (Ala-Gly). (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.