Production of hyperpolarized nuclei for MRI
Abstract
The project in producing the hyperpolarized 3He and 19F are addressed in pursuit of radiation free medical diagnosis. The program for production of the hyperpolarized 3He by the brute force method with the Pomeranchuk cooling and the rapid melting of the solid 3He started a few years ago, and is still on the way, while a new program for production of the hyperpolarized 19F by means of the PHIP (ParaHydrogen Induced Polarization) has just got started. Particular attention is placed upon a new idea of the hyperpolarization catalyst to be used for 19F.