Magnetic resonance imaging of convection in laser-polarized xenon.
We demonstrate nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging of the flow and diffusion of laser-polarized xenon (129Xe) gas undergoing convection above evaporating laser-polarized liquid xenon. The large xenon NMR signal provided by the laser-polarization technique allows more rapid imaging than one can achieve with thermally polarized gas-liquid systems, permitting shorter time-scale events such as rapid gas flow and gas-liquid dynamics to be observed. Two-dimensional velocity-encoded imaging shows convective gas flow above the evaporating liquid xenon, and also permits the measurement of enhanced gas diffusion near regions of large velocity variation.
Mair
R W
RW
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Tseng
C H
CH
Wong
G P
GP
Cory
D G
DG
Walsworth
R L
RL
D018481:Convection; D004058:Diffusion; D007834:Lasers; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D010825:Physics; D014978:Xenon / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry
D014978:Xenon