 At the suggestion of C. J. Gorter , the team attempted to use an oscillating field . This became the basis for the nuclear magnetic resonance method . In 1937 , Rabi , Kusch , Millman and Zacharias used it to measure the magnetic moment of several lithium compounds with molecular beams , including lithium chloride , lithium fluoride and dilithium . Applying the method to hydrogen , they found that the moment of a proton was 2 @.@ 785 ± 0 @.@ 02 nuclear magnetons , and not 1 as predicted by the then @-@ current theory , while that of a deuteron was 0 @.@ 855 ± 0 @.@ 006 nuclear magnetons . This provided more accurate measurements of what Stern 's team had found , and Rabi 's team had confirmed , in 1934 . Since a deuteron is composed of a proton and a neutron with aligned spins , the neutron 's magnetic moment could be inferred by subtracting the deuteron and proton magnetic moments . The resulting value was not zero , and had sign opposite to that of the proton . Based on curious artifacts of these more accurate measurements , Rabi suggested that the deuteron had an electric quadrupole moment . This discovery meant that the physical shape of the deuteron was not symmetric , which provided valuable insight into the nature of the nuclear force binding nucleons . For the creation of the molecular @-@ beam magnetic @-@ resonance detection method , Rabi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1944 . 
