129Xe NMR as a probe of the dynamics of gas confined in porous Vycor.

We use 129Xe NMR to probe the diffusion of xenon gas in the porous network of Vycor glass, by monitoring its relaxation properties. When the mean free path of the diffusing gas is larger than the pore size (Knudsen conditions), both 129Xe chemical shifts and relaxation rates are sensitive to the confinement of xenon gas within a porous solid. The influence of both temperature and xenon pressure are recorded on the 129Xe chemical shifts and relaxation rates, in order to characterise the xenon/Vycor interactions.

Fractional power time dependence of the nuclear magnetization in the presence of paramagnetic impurities.

We extend the theory of growth of the nuclear magnetization in the presence of paramagnetic impurities and the absence of spin diffusion to the case of multi-paramagnetic centers. We show that for short times after saturation pulses, the rate of growth of the magnetization is proportional to t alpha where t is the time and alpha = 1/3, 1/2 and 2/3 for one-, two- and three-dimensional systems, respectively. We also present experimental data for which the total time-dependent magnetization is proportional to exp[-(t/T1) alpha], which reduces to the above time dependence for short times.