N-14 NQR using a high-Tc rf SQUID with a normal metal transformer

We have improved our high-Tc SQUID-based N-14 nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) detection system. By using a reed relay SIL5-1A72-71L (MEDER electronic) in the normal metal transformer, the isolation to the excitation field was much improved. The high-Tc rf SQUID could operate stably when the rf excitation field was over 20 mT. By optimizing the input coil of the transformer, better sensitivity of 0.5 fT Hz-1/2 was obtained at the resonant frequency of the tuned normal metal transformer. A spin-locking spin-echo (SLSE) multi-pulse sequence was also used in the system to detect the weak NQR signals produced by samples with longer spin-spin relaxation time T2, such as trinitrotoluene (TNT)