Trading sensitivity for information: Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill acquisition in solid-state NMR

The Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) experiment has gained popularity in solid-state NMR as a method for enhancing sensitivity for anisotropically broadened spectra of both spin 1/2 and half integer quadrupolar nuclei. Most commonly, the train of CPMG echoes is Fourier transformed directly, which causes the NMR powder pattern to break up into a series of sidebands, sometimes called "spikelets." Larger sensitivity enhancements are observed as the delay between the pi pulses is shortened. As the duration between the pi pulses is shortened, however, the echoes become truncated and information about the nuclear spin interactions is lost. We explored the relationship between enhanced sensitivity and loss of information as a function of the product Omega 2tau, where Omega is the span of the anisotropic lineshape and 2tau is the pi pulse spacing. For a lineshape dominated by the nuclear shielding anisotropy, we found that the minimum uncertainty in the tensor values is obtained using Omega 2tau values in the range Omega 2tau approximately 12(-1)(+6) and Omega 2tau approximately 9(-3)(+3) for eta(s)=0 and eta(s)=1, respectively. For an anisotropic second-order quadrupolar central transition lineshape under magic-angle spinning (MAS), the optimum range of Omega 2tau approximately 9(-2)(+3) was found. Additionally, we show how the Two-dimensional One Pulse (TOP) like processing approach can be used to eliminate the cumbersome sideband pattern lineshape and recover a more familiar lineshape that is easily analyzed with conventional lineshape simulation algorithms.