Creating high, portable proton polarization with photo-excited triplet DNP

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) is a powerful tool to polarize nuclear spins and enhance the intensity of their magnetic resonance signal. For DNP a sample is doped with an agent providing unpaired electron spins. Then the sample is cooled in a strong magnetic field to polarize these electron spins and a microwave field is applied to transfer this polarization to the nuclear spins. While DNP is very efficient, it has two inherent issues: the electron spins needed to polarize the nuclear spins are also the main source of polarization decay. Furthermore, polarizing the electron spins requires strong magnets and powerful cryogenics, that may obstruct further use of the polarized nuclear spins.

These issues can be addressed by using the electron spin of photo-excited triplet states for DNP. After DNP the light creating the electron spins can be shut off, thus eliminating the main source of decay of the nuclear polarization. Moreover, for some well-chosen molecules the photo-excitation process creates the triplet state in a highly polarized state, so magnets and cryogenics can be significantly simplified.

The present article presents the state of the art of producing a high proton polarization – up to 0.80 – with a long lifetime – typically 50 h at liquid nitrogen temperature and in a field of 0.75 T – using the photo-excited triplet state of pentacene in a naphthalene host. It describes sample preparation, experimental equipment and procedures required to obtain this result, as well the theoretical background required to maximize the polarization transfer from the triplet spins to the proton spins and to optimize the photo-excitation process. It finishes with methods for long-distance transport and final application of polarized samples.