Technology

The production of very high polarization (magnetic alignment) of noble gas nuclei using lasers utilizes a technique known as optical pumping developed by French physicist Alfred Kastler, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1966. Research on so-called spin-exchange optical pumping became more widespread as nuclear physics researchers sought to prepare glass vessels containing magnetically aligned helium-3 gas for experiments at particle accelerator laboratories in the 1980s and 1990s. With the recognition in the early 1990s by research teams from Stony Brook and Princeton that these gases could be used for magnetic resonance imaging, a new impetus emerged for producing large quantities of gas.

Princeton researchers readily modified the apparatus they had developed for the nuclear physics laboratories. By fabricating glass vessels with inlet and outlet valves, they could produce bags of nuclear magnetized gas for imaging. While much of the technology for producing nuclear polarized noble gases by spin-exchange optical pumping acquired over a quarter-century was already mature and in the public domain, the new prospect of using this technology for medical imaging spurred a resurgence of development and, of course, patenting of new ideas.

Our own patented and patent-pending improvements have allowed us to produce hyperpolarization systems that improve the state-of-the-art by several hundred fold, now allowing affordable compact polarizers to be situated within medical imaging centers supporting routine human diagnostic MR lung imaging.

We present an overview of the physics processes that are important in the application of spin-exchange optical pumping for producing nuclear polarized (magnetically aligned) noble gases. — Physics

We then describe several obstacles that were encountered that prevented other teams from achieving further improvements in hyperpolarized xenon production, and how our new MagniXene™ production technology circumvents those obstacles. — MagniXene™

Leveraging that expertise, we have developed a system that scales up spin exchange optical pumping technology for polarizing helium. — MagniLium™