The essential components of our project are: optics, gas filling system and glass cell, magnetic field and heating system, and imaging and human studies. The optical system consists of laser, lenses, quarter wave, and a few flat mirrors. This set up has been used successfully to produce hyperpolarized 3He gases. The gas filling system consists of a vacuum system and a manifold for glass cell. The vacuum system is equipped with a purifier and metal valves that can produce vacuum in the order of 10-8 torr. The manifold is made of a glass cell is used as a container for RB atom which is made of Pyrex glass and is designed for pressures up to 20 atmosphere. The glass cell is also equipped with a valve that can be used to transfer the hyperpolarized gas into another container for imaging. The magnetic field and heating system can produce up to 30 Gauss. We have just finished imaging a hyperpolarized glass cell. We have made a number of high pressure glass cells containing different pressures of Helium gas ranging from 2 to 10 atmosphere with the nonpolarized Helium gas. We use these cells to study the relaxation parameters of Helium: T1, T2, T1r and to measure all the relaxation parameters. Our next step is to image the hyperplorized gas cell here on our magnet and subsequently on the GE scanner. To do the imaging on the GE scanner, we have to make hardware changes to the TR switch for Helium-frequencies and construct a design for a new coil.
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