Getting Started

In this section we give a general overview how to operate the Bridge12 Q-Band pulsed EPR spectrometer, which will include the following steps:

• Loading the sample into the spectrometer
• Optimizing the microwave pulse parameters
• Record an echo-detected field sweep EPR experiment
• Perform a PELDOR/DEER experiment

All experiments were performed on our in-house spectrometer, using a sample of a ruler molecule with a concentration of 100 µM in polystyrene. Experiments were performed at a temperature of 50 K.

This documentation was prepared using SpecMan4EPR version 3.6.4. If you use a different version some features are maybe named differently or the layout of some windows has changed.

Preparing SpecMan4EPR

When you first start SpecMan4EPR, the software will make sure it can connect to all devices. Once the initialization routine finishes you will see a window very similar to the one shown in the figure below.

We recommend to open the following windows to operate the spectrometer:

1. Open the Scope Window and activate the digitizer trace. This will be helpful to see the integration limits for the digitizier.
2. Open the Pulse Programmer window to show the pulse sequence.
3. Open the top User Panel, this will give you convenient access to bridge parameters such as the microwave frequency, video amplifier gain, or the microwave phase.
4. Optionally, open the Log Window. This is helpful to see messages from the SpecMan4EPR software.

Once you opened all these additional panels, the SpecMan4EPR window should look similar to the one shown below.

What’s next?

• Inserting a Sample.