Comparison of Continuous Wave and Rapid Scan X-band Electron Paramagnetic Resonance of Irradiated Clipped Fingernails

X-band rapid scan electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measures the free radicals in irradiated clipped fingernails with higher signal-to-noise (S/N) and lower standard deviation of the signal amplitude for replicate measurements than does conventional continuous wave (CW) EPR in the same measurement time. For a clipped fingernail sample irradiated to 10 Gy and data acquisition time of 30 s with B₁ = 8.5 μT, the S/N for rapid scan is >2000 for the absorption spectrum and 1200 for the corresponding first derivative. The standard deviation for replicate measurements of signal amplitude is ~1%. For CW spectra, the S/N depends on the modulation amplitude. The CW signal has a first derivative peak-to-peak linewidth of 0.95 mT. For 30 s of CW acquisition time, the S/N was 30 for a conservative modulation amplitude of 0.2 mT and B₁ of 2.3 μT or 90 for a modulation amplitude of 0.4 mT and B₁ of 3.2 μT, which resulted in standard deviations of replicate measurements of 5% or 2%, respectively.