High nuclear polarization of helium-3 at low and high pressure by metastability exchange optical pumping at 1.5 Tesla

Abstract

We perform metastability exchange optical pumping of helium-3 in a strong magnetic field of 1.5 T. The achieved nuclear polarization, from 80% at 1.33 mbar to 25% at 67 mbar, shows a substantial improvement at high pressures with respect to standard low-field optical pumping. The specific mechanisms of metastability exchange optical pumping at high field are investigated, advantages and intrinsic limitations are discussed. From a practical point of view, our results open the way to alternative technological solutions for polarized helium-3 applications and in particular for magnetic resonance imaging of human lungs.

accepted for publication in Europhysics Letters

References in corpus (2)

• Magnetic Field Effects on the 1083 nm Atomic Line of Helium. Optical Pumping of Helium and Optical Polarisation Measurement in High Magnetic Field
• A broadband Ytterbium-doped tunable fiber laser for 3He optical pumping at 1083 nm

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• Optically Pumped Polarized ${}^3$He${}^{++}$ Ion Source Development for RHIC/EIC
• Metastability exchange optical pumping of ${}^3$He at low pressure and high magnetic field
• Experimental Scheme for Polarizing the Boron Nuclei