Thermal management technology for polarizing Xenon
AssigneeUniversity of New Hampshire
InventorF. William Hersman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A polarizing apparatus has a thermally conductive partitioning system in a polarizing cell. In the polarizing region, this thermally conductive partitioning system serves to prevent the elevation of the temperature of the polarizing cell where laser light is maximally absorbed to perform the polarizing process. By employing this partitioning system, increases in laser power of factors of ten or more can be beneficially utilized to polarize xenon. Accordingly, the polarizing apparatus and the method of polarizing 129Xe achieves higher rates of production.
Claims20
A polarizing cell comprising:
- an enclosure having a side wall defining an interior capable of retaining a gas mixture, at least a pair of openings including an entrance and an exit to allow the gas mixture to pass through the interior;
- at least one window transparent to laser light;
- and
- at least one partitioning devices carried in the interior of the enclosure for transferring heat from a gas mixture to one or more thermal reservoirs.
A polarizing apparatus comprising:
- a polarizing cell having an enclosure capable of retaining a gas mixture formed of thermally conductive material, the enclosure has at least a pair of multiple openings, and at least one window transparent to laser light, a heat transfer device carried in the interior of the enclosure for transferring heat from the a gas mixture to the enclosure;
- a laser propagating light, at the absorption wavelength of the alkali metal vapor, through at least one transparent window into the polarizing cell in a direction at least partially opposite to the flow of the gas mixture;
- and
- an optical arrangement to cause the laser light to be substantially circularly polarized.
A polarizing process comprising:
- moving a flowing mixture of gas, at least containing a polarizable nuclear species and vapor of at least one alkali metal;
- propagating laser light in a direction that intersects the flowing gas mixture;
- containing the flowing gas mixture in a polarizing cell;
- stabilizing the temperature of the flowing gas mixture using a partitioning device carried in the polarizing cell for transferring the heat;
- and
- immersing the polarizing cell in a magnetic field.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.