Low-field and benchtop NMR

NMR started at low field. Important discoveries like the first observation of NMR in condensed matter, the spin echo, NMR for chemical analysis, Fourier NMR spectroscopy, 2D NMR spectroscopy and magnetic resonance imaging happened at field strengths considered low today. With time the footprint of the NMR instruments at these field strengths shrunk from the laboratory floor to the tabletop. The first commercial tabletop NMR instruments were compact relaxometers for food analysis followed by mobile relaxometers for materials testing and oil-well exploration culminating in tabletop spectrometers for chemical analysis, capable of performing nearly the whole methodical portfolio of today's high-field instruments. The increasing sensitivity afforded by the lower noise of modern electronics and the unfolding richness of hyperpolarization scenarios along with detection schemes alternative to nuclear induction enable NMR at ultra-low field strengths down to zero applied field, where spin-spin couplings in local fields dominate the residual Zeeman interaction. Miniaturization and cost-reduction of NMR instruments outline current development goals along with the development of smart-phone-like apps to conduct standard NMR analyses.