Development and characterization of a continuous-flow optical pumping system

Litre-quantities of nuclear-spin polarized gas can be subjected to MR imaging techniques to obtain information on the lung morphology and to perform regionally specific measurements of lung function. This thesis characterizes and provides protocols for operating a system that produces nuclear-spin polarized Helium-3 by metastability exchange optical pumping (MEOP) of a continuous stream of gas. Optical monitoring of the Helium-3 emission spectrum and polarization are used to aid in the efficient production of highly non-equilibrium nuclear-spin polarized (hyperpolarized) Helium-3. Preliminary measurements of the total magnetic moment and longitudinal relaxation time were made on the first samples of compressed, hyperpolarized Helium-3. The results suggest that the continuous-flow MEOP system is fully functional but requires several minor procedural and design modifications before samples of hyperpolarized Helium-3 gas can be produced with magnetic moments suitable for lung airspace MRI.