| Description |
This thesis is focused on the fundamental physics of spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP) and a few applications of the resultant hyperpolarized 129Xe. During SEOP, noble-gas and Rb atoms repeatedly collide. During these collisions the Rb valence-electron wavefunction overlaps with the noble-gas nucleus and if either the noble-gas nuclei or Rb electrons are highly spin-polarized then the other will experience, on average, a small additional magnetic field that will manifest itself as a shift in the Larmor frequency. The size of the frequency shift is proportional to the magnetization of the polarized atoms and consequently can be used to perform polarimetry. In this thesis, pulsed NMR was used to measure 3He and 129Xe Larmor frequency shifts, and optically detected continuous-wave electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) was used to monitor the 87Rb hyperfine transition frequencies. A successful calibration of the size of the frequency shift due to 129XeRb collisions was done and, using this calibration, preliminary 129Xe polarimetry data were acquired by monitoring the 87Rb EPR frequency inside the Utah flow-through polarizer. The 129Xe polarimetry results were inconclusive due to an unexplained result regarding the sign of the frequency shift; however extensive progress was made in understanding the systematics associated with this type of measurement. Hyperpolarized 129Xe from the Utah flow-through polarizer was also used to perform measurements with unprecedented precision of the T1 time of 129Xe in Xe frozen as "ice" and "snow." In addition, hyperpolarized 129Xe was also used in a study focused on interaction of dissolved Xe with wild-type and several mutants of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) protein. |
