A method for measuring the spin polarization of 129Xe by using an atomic magnetometer

Linlin Chen,Guanqun Lei,Binquan Zhou,Wenfeng Wu,Yueyang Zhai,Jiancheng Fang,Zhuo Wang

doi:10.1063/1.4998732

Abstract

We propose a method for the precise determination of nuclear spin polarization, based on the atomic magnetometers, which employs the effective magnetic field produced by the spin polarization of 129Xe nuclei. This effective magnetic field can be estimated by measuring the initial induced voltage of the Free Induction Decay (FID) signal of the 129Xe nuclei, which is based on the calibration coefficient between the transverse magnetic field and the output voltage signal of the atomic magnetometer, by using an off-resonant transverse driven magnetic field. Compared with the method based on measuring the longitudinal relaxation time of the 129Xe nuclei and the spin polarization of alkali-metal atoms, our method can directly measure the nuclear spin polarization, without being affected by inaccuracies in the measurement of the spin polarization of alkali-metal atoms.

Highlights

The high spin polarization of hyperpolarized noble gases finds applications in a number of fields, including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI),[1,2,3] neutron spin filters,[4,5] optical atomic magnetometers,[6,7,8] spin precession gyroscopes,[9,12] and devices aimed at studying fundamental physics.[10,11] In all these applications, the spin polarization of the 129Xe nuclei influences the detection sensitivity and the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of the devices
An average magnetic field of ∼10 nG produced by Xenon gas at a pressure of 5 bars on the 10 cm diameter vapor cell is detected with SNR ∼ 10
We present a method to determine the nuclear spin polarization by measuring the initial induced voltage of the Free Induction Decay (FID) signal of 129Xe nuclei with an atomic magnetometer based on Rb abqzhou@buaa.edu.cn 2158-3226/2017/7(8)/085221/8

Summary

Introduction

The high spin polarization of hyperpolarized noble gases finds applications in a number of fields, including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI),[1,2,3] neutron spin filters,[4,5] optical atomic magnetometers,[6,7,8] spin precession gyroscopes,[9,12] and devices aimed at studying fundamental physics.[10,11] In all these applications, the spin polarization of the 129Xe nuclei influences the detection sensitivity and the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of the devices. Z. Ma et al applied a transverse radio frequency (RF) magnetic field to monitor the 87Rb hyperfine electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) frequency in order to calculate the spin polarization of the 129Xe nuclei.[18,19] the working conditions of the EPR method are not suitable for the atomic magnetometer

Methods

Results

Conclusion