Nuclear polarization of solid deuterium–tritium

We have investigated both theoretically and experimentally the properties of condensed D–T as they apply to nuclear polarization for hydrogen fusion. At 2 K, atom densities and their electron relaxation times were found to be sufficient to pump nuclei in the process of dynamic nuclear polarization. However, the nuclear spin lattice relaxation times of both the triton and deuteron were too short by 2–3 orders of magnitude, as a result of the creation of rotationally excited hydrogen (J=1 T2 and D2) by the tritium radioactivity. Three means of lengthening these times are discussed: (1) synthesizing low J=1 molecular DT (here, J is the molecular rotational quantum number), (2) synthesizing high J=1 D2–T2 in the ordered phase, and (3) placing the sub‐2 K solid in fine‐celled foam. The most likely method combines the first and third approaches. Even so, the purified solid DT is likely to last only 20–30 min before the tritium radioactivity reduces the relaxation times. The best temperature regime is in the low...