Quantum mechanical principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

The phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has numerous applications in Physics, Chemistry, Engineering and Medicine, being used for the analysis materials composition and structure, both in solids and liquids. Medical uses are in tomographic imaging, without the need of submitting the patient to ionizing radiation of any kind. The aim of the present manuscript is to introduce the physical principles of NMR using quantum mechanics in order to deduce Bloch's equations and obtain their solutions in the high magnetostatic field regime. The conditions required for practical uses of the technique, using proton's resonance, will be briefly discussed.

Keywords:
nuclear magnetic resonance; spin; proton