Metastability exchange optical pumping low field polarizer for lung magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

An extensive improvement of our low field polarizer is described. It produces 3He gas polarized up to 40% in a 6 h decay time storage cell. Production rate was raised by a factor of 10 to 4–5 scc/min thanks to the implementation of a new 10 W laser and a new design of a peristaltic compressor, easier to handle. Some applications of polarized gas are also presented: dynamic images of gas inhalation in the rat as well as a static image of human lungs using hyperpolarized gas were obtained