VITO experiment

The Versatile Ion polarisation Technique Online (VITO) experiment is a permanent experimental setup located in the ISOLDE facility at CERN, in the form of a beamline.

In these conditions, the degree of spin polarisation and its changes can be monitored extremely efficiently by observing the spatial asymmetry in the emission of beta particles by the decaying short-lived nuclei.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is a technique that provides information on the environment of a nucleus, from calculations based on the shift in Larmor frequency or relaxation time.

β-NMR is a modification of this basic technique using the idea that beta decay from polarised radioactive nuclei is anisotropic (directional) in space.

The aim is to develop a method of beta-detected Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (β-NMR) to investigate the interaction of metal ions with biomolecules in liquids.