Comparison of continuous wave, spin echo, and rapid scan EPR of irradiated fused quartz

The E' defect in irradiated fused quartz has spin lattice relaxation times (T1) about 100-300 μs and spin-spin relaxation times (T2) up to about 200 μs, depending on the concentration of defects and other species in the sample. These long relaxation times make it difficult to record an unsaturated continuous wave (CW) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signal that is free of passage effects. Signals measured at X-band (∼9.5 GHz) by three EPR methods: conventional slow-scan field-modulated EPR, rapid scan EPR, and pulsed EPR, were compared. To acquire spectra with comparable signal-to-noise, both pulsed and rapid scan EPR require less time than conventional CW EPR. Rapid scan spectroscopy does not require the high power amplifiers that are needed for pulsed EPR. The pulsed spectra, and rapid scan spectra obtained by deconvolution of the experimental data, are free of passage effects.