Field-cycling NMR illuminator provides a no-contact lighting mechanism to irradiate the field-cycling sample during the NMR experiment. It can irradiate the sample at variable stray fields in an NMR spectrometer. The device has no long optical-fiber flipping during shuttling. Therefore, the field-cycling sample can move rapidly and preciously between the illumination spot and the acquisition sweep spot. This shuttle-illumination device is an exclusive add-on to the High-Field Field-Cycler (HFFC). To learn more about the High-Field Field-Cycler, please go to HFFC.

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1. No optical fiber is required. The exclusive feature is that there is no touching between the field-cycling sample and the shuttle illumination device.
2. High-power LEDs with optional wavelengths
3. Changeable illumination positions along stray fields on the adapted NMR spectrometer
4. Synchronizing illumination timing with NMR pulse programs by TTL triggers
5. Computer aid for controlling the light powers and various modes of illumination timing available

Available wavelengths and specifications

Note:*The specification of maxima irradiance and uniformity shown here are the values on the surface of the sample tube.
The other wavelengths are upon customer requests

Patent application:

• Application No.: Taiwan Utility Model Patent M641967 (Status: Active)
• Application No.: US Patent US 12,618,922 B2 (Status: Active)

No touching illumination mechanism preserves the rapid sample shuttling feature as the standard high-field field-cycler. The high-field NMR spectrometer performance is also well-conserved. Hence, our shuttle-illumination device combined with our HFFC can perform the photo-correlated NMR experiments with comparable resolution and sensitivity as high-field NMR with additional information coming from light irradiation.

Application Note

Photo-CIDNP experiment tailored to the detection of H^α-C^α resonance on 1µM Trp was performed by our shuttle-illumination device with the HFFC. HFFC was installed on Bruker 700 MHz equipped with a 5mm TXI cryoprobe. The optical irradiation time was 100ms. The illumination field was at the stray field, 150 MHz. This ¹H spectrum was collected with 8 scans.

Reference:

• Siyu Li, Shibani Bhattacharya, Ching-Yu Chou, Minglee Chu, Shu-Cheng Chou, Marco Tonelli, Michael Goger, Hanming Yang, Arthur G. Palmer, Silvia Cavagnero, Journal of Magnetic Resonance 359 (2024) 107616

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• One LED module with one wavelength on demand.
• Option for more than one LED module.
*The irradiance is calibrated with demanded wavelengths before installation.*
• An adaptor on the shuttle rail and a position adjuster
• Electric power cable for LED module /MMXC/ (the length is according to on-site demand)
• Control and power module with USB communication to the computer and TTL trigger to NMR console
• TTL trigger cable /BNC to MCX/ (the length is according to on-site demand)
• A special optical power meter for irradiation power calibration of the LED module
• A graphical user interface for controlling the total power of illumination and setup with field cycling NMR experiments
• The illuminator with 255 levels of adjustable optical power.

Get Details on Field-Cycling NMR Illuminator

Related Product

High-Field Field-Cycler, a rapid sample shuttling system adapted to a high-field NMR spectrometer.

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Why does the Field-Cycling NMR Illuminator use a no-contact illumination design instead of an optical fiber inserted into the NMR tube?

Inserting a fiber into the NMR tube during field-cycling creates two problems: the fiber physically contacts the sample and interferes with rapid shuttling, and the reflection at the fiber tip introduces signal variability between scans. The no-contact design eliminates both issues — the sample shuttles freely at full speed, and illumination uniformity is consistent across all scans, which is critical for 2D experiments requiring hundreds of identical shuttling cycles.

Can the illumination position be adjusted for experiments at different fields?

Yes. The illuminator module mounts on the shuttle rail with an adjustable position, allowing irradiation at different stray field positions along the NMR spectrometer bore. This is essential for field-dependent photo-CIDNP experiments where the sample needs to be irradiated at a specific target field before shuttling back to the detection field.

How is illumination timing synchronized with the NMR pulse program?

The illuminator is triggered via TTL signals compatible with Bruker, Varian, and JEOL NMR consoles. This allows precise synchronization of light-on/light-off events within the pulse sequence, enabling experiments such as photo-CIDNP, reaction kinetics, and time-resolved photochemistry without manual intervention.

Can the light source be changed to a different wavelength after installation?

Yes. The illuminator adopts a modular light-source design: the LED module is an interchangeable unit, while the driver and power supply are shared components that remain in place. If your experimental requirements change. For example, switching from blue to green excitation — only the LED module needs to be swapped, not the entire system. Each module is factory-calibrated for irradiance before delivery, so a replacement module arrives ready to use. This design significantly reduces the cost of wavelength reconfiguration and makes the illuminator a flexible platform for evolving research programs.

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