Dynamic nuclear polarization by frequency modulation of a tunable gyrotron of 260 GHz

An increase in Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) signal intensity is obtained with a tunable gyrotronproducing frequency modulation around 260 GHz at power levels less than 1W. The sweep rate of frequency modulation can reach 14 kHz, and its amplitude is fixed at 50 MHz. In water/glycerol glassy ice doped with 40 mM TEMPOL, the relative increase in the DNP enhancement was obtained as a function of frequency-sweep rate for several temperatures. A 68 % increase was obtained at 15 K, thus giving a DNP enhancement of about 80. By employing k=4 and k=8 polarizer mirrors, we transformed the polarization of the microwave beam from linear to circular, and achieved an increase in the enhancement by a factor of about 66% for a given power.