 Edward O. Stejskal

Edward O. Stejskal was a physical chemistry researcher known for nuclear magnetic resonance methods. His Illinois doctoral work used nuclear spin relaxation to investigate molecular motion in solids. At Wisconsin he developed pulsed field gradient NMR with his first doctoral student, John E. Tanner; later he worked at Monsanto and became a professor at North Carolina State University.^[ref]

Their 1965 apparatus measured proton spin echoes at $20.00\mathrm{MHz}$ using opposed gradient coils. Keeping the applied magnetic field gradient small during the radio frequency pulses and echo detection removed two limitations of continuously strong gradients: difficult excitation across a broad resonance and an echo too narrow to measure easily. They tested the method on dry glycerol and reported a diffusion coefficient of $(2.5\pm 0.2)\times 10^{-8}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^2{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ at $26\pm 1{}^{\circ }\mathrm{C}$. This is their reported measurement, rather than a general reference value for all glycerol samples.^[ref]

The Stejskal-Tanner equation gives a useful ideal prediction. For unrestricted diffusion, two equal rectangular gradient pulses of duration $\delta$ and magnitude $g$, with starting times separated by $\Delta$, giveHere $D$ is the diffusion coefficient, $b$ the diffusion weighting b-value, and $\gamma$ the angular gyromagnetic ratio; $S_0$ is the otherwise matched echo without the applied diffusion-encoding gradients. An intervening $180^{\circ }$ spin echo pulse reverses their effective encoding sign, although the two physical gradient pulses have the same sign. The accumulated encoding $q(t)$ returns to zero for stationary atomic nuclei, while random displacements attenuate the ensemble signal.^[ref]

The finite-duration correction can be checked directly. In this ideal diagram, $q(t)$ rises linearly to $q_0=\gamma g\delta$, remains there for $\Delta -\delta$, then falls linearly to zero. Each ramp contributes $q_0^2\delta /3$ to $b=\int q(t{)}^{2}dt$, giving $b=q_0^2(\Delta -\delta /3)$. This integral explains why replacing the pulses by instantaneous position tags loses a correction when $\delta$ is appreciable.

At Monsanto, Stejskal and Jacob Schaefer combined cross-polarization (nuclear magnetic resonance) with magic angle spinning to obtain high-resolution solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance. In cross-polarization magic-angle spinning, polarization transfer strengthens weak nuclear responses while sample rotation averages appropriate anisotropic interactions; the two operations address different experimental obstacles.^[ref]