Bulk production and usage of hyperpolarized .sup.129 Xenon

摘要

The production and usage of hyperpolarized .sup.129 Xenon which comprises providing solid xenon with either an internal (dissolved) or external (imbedded) nuclear spin relaxant, loading and positioning the solid xenon in a low temperature refrigerator operating in the range of 5 mK to 30 mK with a surrounding magnetic field of between about 10 and 20 Tesla enabling high xenon spin polarizations between about 10% and 50% to be obtained in a time of about 1-3 days owing to the properties of the relaxant, separating the xenon from the relaxant or otherwise rendering the relaxant inoperable after polarizing and thereby switching off further relaxation and insuring preservation of the polarization of the xenon in solid, liquid or gaseous form for storage or external use for long times, ranging from weeks to the order of minutes, depending on the usage conditions.