Macroscopic production of highly nuclear-spin-polarized molecules from IR-excitation and photodissociation of molecular beams

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method to produce highly nuclear-spin-polarized molecules via IR-excitation and photodissociation, achieving higher production rates than traditional beam-separation techniques, with potential applications in NMR and nuclear fusion.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach for generating spin-polarized molecules directly from molecular beams using IR-excitation and photodissociation, significantly increasing production rates.

Findings

Production rates approaching 10^{21} s^{-1}

Successful generation of spin-polarized hydrogen and water isotopes

Potential to enhance nuclear fusion cross sections by 50%

Abstract

Pure, highly nuclear-spin-polarized molecules have only been produced with molecular beam-separation methods, with production rates up to ${\sim}3{\times}10^{12}$ s$^{-1}$. Here, we propose the production of spin-polarized molecular photofragments from the IR-excitation and photodissociation of molecular beams, with production rates approaching the tabletop-IR-laser photon fluxes of $10^{21}$ s$^{-1}$. We give details on the production of spin-polarized molecular hydrogen and water isotopes, from formaldehyde and formic acid beams, respectively. Macroscopic quantities of these molecules are important for NMR signal enhancement, and for the needs of a nuclear fusion reactor, to increase the D-T or D-$^{3}$He unpolarized nuclear fusion cross section by ${\sim}50{\%}$.