Enhanced Polarization of Low Pressure ${}^3$He through Metastability-Exchange Optical Pumping at High Field

Abstract

We report high steady-state nuclear polarization of 1 torr ${}^3$He gas nuclei via metastability-exchange optical pumping at magnetic fields above 2 T. The introduction of highly polarized ${}^3$He gas into Brookhaven's Electron Beam Ion Source would enable a new, polarized ${}^3$He ion source for use at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and a future Electron-Ion Collider facility. By adapting recent developments in high field metastability-exchange optical pumping for higher pressure gas, we have successfully polarized 1 torr ${}^3$He sealed cells in the EBIS solenoid. Through careful manipulation of the RF discharge parameters, polarizations above 80% were attained at 2, 3 and 4 T, with 89% being reached at 3 T with a 664 s relaxation time.

References in corpus (6)

• Optically Polarized ${}^3$He
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• High nuclear polarization of helium-3 at low and high pressure by metastability exchange optical pumping at 1.5 Tesla
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• Diffusive Transfer of Polarized 3He Gas through Depolarizing Magnetic Gradients
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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Optically Pumped Polarized ${}^3$He${}^{++}$ Ion Source Development for RHIC/EIC
• A Concept for Polarized ${}^3$He Targets for High Luminosity Scattering Experiments in High Magnetic Field Environments
• Metastability exchange optical pumping of ${}^3$He at low pressure and high magnetic field