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Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Hyperpolarized Xenon for NMR and MRI Applications
Published on: September 6, 2012
Magnetic trapping and Zeeman relaxation of NH (X3Sigma-)
Wesley C Campbell1, Edem Tsikata, Hsin-I Lu
1Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. wes@cua.harvard.edu
Abstract:
NH radicals are magnetically trapped and their Zeeman relaxation and energy transport collision cross sections with helium are measured. Continuous buffer-gas loading of the trap is direct from a room-temperature molecular beam. The Zeeman relaxation (inelastic) cross section of magnetically trapped electronic, vibrational, and rotational ground state NH molecules in collisions with 3He is measured to be 3.8+/-1.1 x 10(-19) cm(2) at 710 mK. The NH-He energy transport cross section is also measured, indicating a ratio of diffusive to inelastic cross sections of gamma=7 x 10(4), in agreement with recent theory [R. V. Krems, H. R. Sadeghpour, A. Dalgarno, D. Zgid, J. Kłos, and G. Chałasiński, Phys. Rev. A 68, 051401 (2003)10.1103/PhysRevA.68.051401].
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