Development of an optical pumping nuclear spin polarizer

We have been developing an optical pumping nuclear spin polarizer (OPNSP) to enhance nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals from small amount of nano- and biological materials. In this scheme, a semiconductor and a target (nano- or biological) material are in close contact with each other, and high nuclear spin polarization in the semiconductor created by the optical pumping method is transferred to the nuclei in the target material by a cross-polarization at the interfaces and a spin diffusion inside the target material. As a result, high nuclear spin polarization is realized in the target material. In this paper, we present profiles of the nuclear spin polarization in the target material of the OPNSP calculated for the multilayered and multi-columnar configurations, from which suitable designs of the OPNSP to achieve high nuclear polarization in the target materials are discussed.