Two-dimensional zero-field nutation nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopy

We introduce a new two-dimensional nuclear quadrupole resonance experiment, in which the first time period (t₁) is the duration of the radiofrequency exciting pulse; and the second (t₂) is the normal free precession of a quadrupolar nucleus at zero field. After double Fourier transformation, the result is a 2D spectrum in which the first frequency dimension is the nutation spectrum for the quadrupolar nucleus at zero field. For single crystals, this spectrum contains harrow lines, whose frequency, for axially symmetric tensors, is proportional to sin θ, where θ is the angle between the unique axis of the quadrupolar tensor and that of the transmitter/receiver coil. For polycrystalline samples we obtain powder line shapes which are reminiscent of high-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) powder patterns, and which allow determination of the asymmetry parameter η, which has previously only been obtainable using Zeeman perturbed nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) methods. Both theoretical spectra and several experimental examples are presented.