Relaxation Phenomena in Optically Pumped Mercury Isotopes.
Abstract
Relaxation measurements of optically pumped 199Hg and 201 Hg in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) cells have shown that the activation energy for adsorption of ground state mercury atoms ranged from .22 eV to .24 eV for a variety of materials. These measurements also provided a means of determining the temperature dependence of the product of concentration and strength of paramagnetic centers on the inner cell surfaces. The origins and effects of both randomly-fluctuating and steady-state quadrupole perturbations on 201 Hg have been clarified. A calculation predicts that the relaxation rate of 201 Hg in a cube-shaped cell should be independent of cell orientation. This prediction was verified experimentally. Another calculation, which modelled 201 Hg as a single four-level spin system, predicted a functional form for the non-exponential decay of 201 Hg in the presence of a quadrupole perturbation. These predictions were also verified experimentally. Techniques have been developed for producing mercury NMR cells with long relaxation times and stable characteristics. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 31, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA107604
Entities
People
- D. I. Shernoff
- J. H. Simpson
- M. J. Kelly
- Philip Heimann