An experimental method is described allowing fast field-cycling Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) experiments over a wide range of magnetic fields from 5 nT to 10 T. The method makes use of a hybrid technique: the high field range is covered by positioning the sample in the inhomogeneous stray field of the NMR spectrometer magnet. For fields below 2 mT a magnetic shield is mounted on top of the spectrometer; inside the shield the magnetic field is controlled by a specially designed coil system. This combination allows us to measure T₁-relaxation times and nuclear Overhauser effect parameters over the full range in a routine way. For coupled proton-carbon spin systems relaxation with a common T₁ is found at low fields, where the spins are “strongly coupled”. In some cases, experiments at ultralow fields provide access to heteronuclear long-lived spin states. Efficient coherent polarization transfer is seen for proton-carbon spin systems at ultralow fields as follows from the observation of quantum oscillations in the polarization evolution. Applications to analysis and the manipulation of heteronuclear spin systems are discussed.

In this paper, we describe a method of hyper-polarizing “insensitive” Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) nuclei by exploiting the SABRE (Signal Amplification By Reversible Exchange) technique and transferring spin order from protons originating from parahydrogen. We demonstrate that hyperpolarization transfer is due to a coherent mechanism, which is operative at (i) very low magnetic field; (ii) geomagnetic field; (iii) high field in the presence of a suitable radiofrequency-excitation scheme. Experiments are performed using ¹⁵N-labelled pyridine as the SABRE substrate; NMR enhancements achieved for ¹⁵N nuclei are more than 1000 for free pyridine in solution and more than 20 000 for pyridine bound to the SABRE complex. High-field SABRE experiments are particularly important for enhancing the sensitivity of NMR methods: they enable strong signal enhancements and avoid technically demanding field-cycling. Furthermore, such experiments use very low power for NMR excitation and make feasible continuous re-hyperpolarization of the substrate in high-field experiments: polarization can be quickly restored to the maximal level within only 15 seconds with the result that polarization levels stay constant over several hundred experiments. The techniques outlined are applicable to hyper-polarizing spin-1/2 hetero-nuclei, such as ¹³C, ¹⁹F, ³¹P, etc. Development of such methods opens new avenues in NMR spectroscopy and imaging, which were out of reach for sensitivity reasons.