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Updated: May 30, 2026

Spin Saturation Transfer Difference NMR (SSTD NMR): A New Tool to Obtain Kinetic Parameters of Chemical Exchange Processes
Published on: November 12, 2016
Anisotropic hyperfine interactions limit the efficiency of spin-exchange optical pumping of ³He nuclei
T V Tscherbul1, P Zhang, H R Sadeghpour
1Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. tshcherb@cfa.harvard.edu
Abstract:
We use accurate ab initio and quantum scattering calculations to demonstrate that the maximum ³He spin polarization that can be achieved in spin-exchange collisions with potassium (³⁹K) and silver (¹⁰⁷Ag) atoms is limited by the anisotropic hyperfine interaction. We find that spin exchange in Ag-He collisions occurs much faster than in K-He collisions over a wide range of temperatures (10-600 K). Our analysis indicates that measurements of trap loss rates of ²S atoms in the presence of cold ³He gas may be used to probe anisotropic spin-dependent interactions in atom-He collisions.
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