Polarization of 3He, D2 (and possibly 129Xe) using cryogenic techniques

Cryogenic techniques combining high magnetic fields and low temperatures could be used to produce larger quantities of highly polarized 3He through adiabatic compression. This process could produce large quantities of gas in the range 100–1000 l/day. By condensing molecular deuterium (catalyzed to mostly J = 0) inside a 3He cell it was possible to polarize the molecules to P = 0.13 limited by the relatively large size of the “snow” grains. Production of finely divided D2 should lead to a quite higher polarization. Using these techniques, one might consider the polarization of 129Xe, which has found important applications in MRI of humans, just as 3He.