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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Production of spin polarized fusion fuels

Patent ·
OSTI ID:6689828

The method is described of producing polarized deuterons in solid HD that includes the steps of providing a sample of HD containing a 10/sup -4/ to 10/sup -3/ concentration (mole fraction) of rho-D/sub 2/, irradiating the sample with radiation that produces defect centers in the sample for increasing the conversion rate of rho-D/sub 2/ to o-D/sub 2/, subjecting the sample simultaneously to a magnetic field greater than 10 Telsa and a temperature less than 10 m/sup 0/K. such that the H/sub O//T ratio is in a range of between 1000 and 7500 T//sup 0/K. corresponding to a deuteron polarization range of 20% to 90%, and allowing rho-D/sub 2/ to convert to o-D/sub 2/ to increase the relaxation time of the polarized deuterons at ordinary liquid helium temperatures of 1/sup 0/-4/sup 0/K. and low magnetic fields of about 0.1 Telsa. The method is also described of producing polarized tritons in solid HT that includes the steps of epitaxially depositing alternate layers of HT having a thickness of about 1 ..mu..m on thicker layers of solid HD at temperatures 0.3 to 4/sup 0/K. wherein the protons in the HD are polarized and the deuterons are either polarized or unpolarized, allowing the proton polarization in the HD layer to diffuse to polarize the protons in the HT layers through spin diffusion, placing the layers in a radio frequency field, and radiating the layers with radio frequencies to induce partially forbidden transitions between the polarized proton and the unpolarized triton coupled energy levels to polarize the tritons directly.

Assignee:
Syracuse Univ., Syracuse, NY
Patent Number(s):
US 4642206
OSTI ID:
6689828
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English