Multi-spin control from one-spin pulses

Abstract

Controlling ensembles of weakly coupled spins typically requires computationally expensive multispin optimisations. We present a compact framework that enables control of weakly coupled spin systems (of any spin), but using RF pulses optimised for a single spin-1/2. We do this by explicitly creating a GRAPE pulse with fixed 'active' evolution times using single spin-1/2 methods, and pulsing on one spin at a time. By enforcing this form uniformly across offsets ('band-schematic' pulses),chemical shift and scalar coupling evolution of the entire system can be precisely controlled. We demonstrate the approach by constructing band-schematic pulses and a continuously irradiated joint INEPT (JINEPT) that achieves band-selective transfer $I_z \rightarrow 2I_zS_z$. The framework is implemented in the software Seedless, which both rapidly generates such pulses and analyses the schematic form of arbitrary pulses, enabling robust multi-spin control, without multi-spin optimisation.