Spolaryzowany ksenon do celów medycznych

The hyperpolarized noble gases (xenon 129Xe and helium 3He) delivered a great tool for the growing number of applications, spanning nuclear physics, Medical Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy studies. Hyperpolarization may be achieved via the Spin Exchange Optical Pumping (SEOP, for 129Xe or 3He) or the Metastability Exchange Optical Pumping (MEOP, 3He). The main aim of this thesis is to present the design of a novel large scale SEOP polarizer, built in the frame of the PhD thesis, for producing hyperpolarized 129Xe for further medical imaging of lungs. Increasing requirements for large volumes of hyperpolarized gases could be realized by e cient polarizers, such as the novel polarizer presented here. The thesis characterizes the optimum operating parameters of the polarizer. The polarizer works basing on the SEOP method, resulting in a high-yield of the polarized gas. The main parts of the unit are presented: the coil system producing magnetic eld, the gas (129Xe and bu er gases: N2, 4He) and rubidium distribution system, the high-power laser diode system spectrally narrowed with Volume Bragg Gratings for rubidium optical pumpin and the high-volume SEOP cell. The SEOP polarizer was designed to work at the pressure close to the atmospheric pressure with a low content of the 129Xe gas in the SEOP mixture, contained in a large SEOP cell (about 6 L inner volume). This is unique comparing to majority of other SEOP designs, which use the high-pressure and small-volume cells. The motivation, a brief overview of the state of the art in the hyper-polarized gases techniques, the current status of the SEOP polarizer project and the future research plans are also part of this work.