Production of intense beams of spin-polarized nuclei

The dependence on relative spin orientation of thermonuclear reaction cross-sections as well as other elementary processes make the production of highly polarized intense beams of nuclei desirable. High degrees of nuclear polarization in the solid state can be achieved by use of a dilution refrigerator in combination with a high-field superconductive magnet. For hydrogen isotopes the relaxation times of spin orientation can be controlled by the orthopara conversion process so that the polarized samples can be transferred to an atmospheric pressure helium cryostat without appreciable loss of polarization. The magnetically insulated ion diode obtains the ions to be accelerated by rapid ablation of the anode by an electric discharge. Hence if this anode consists of highly polarized solid hydrogen isotope samples produced by the above method the resulting ion beam should retain this polarization as the ablation process is too rapid to permit nuclear depolarization. The resulting polarized intense ion beam could thus be used for injection into a thermonuclear reactor or into a particle accelerator for high-energy physics experiments.