Optically-detected magnetic resonance and its applications

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Abstract
Much of our knowledge about magnetic centres in solids haa been obtained using magnetic resonance. The experiments rely upon detecting the absorption of microwave or radio frequency radiation by the centres at charaateristic values of an applied magnetic field. The method in its conventional form is usually restricted to the ground states of systems, since, even for long-lived excited states, there are at any instant insufficient numbers of excited centres to give detectable absorption signals. It is, nevertheless, possible to observe magnetic resonance in many of these excited states provided that optical methods of detection are used, since the magnetic resonance often affects some property of the luminescence, such aa intensity or polarization. The purpose of this article is to describe how optically-detected magnetic resonance experiments are carried out and to discuss the types of system to which they may be applied. It will be seen that, as well as providing details of excited states, the technique enables one to investigate the luminescence process itself.