Noise triggering of radiation damping from the inverted state

Spontaneous radiation damping in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of sharp lines is commonly encountered in highly magnetized samples following magnetization inversion. The time delay for the maximum of the hyperbolic secant like signal to develop following inversion is measured and calculated. The distribution function of the measured delay times is Gaussian-Boltzmann and can be used to predict the sensitivity of both signal delay and phase to inversion errors. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.