Fig. 1.

Experimental setup for production and delivery of hp ¹³¹Xe. Following polarization build-up in the SEOP cell and evacuation of the detection cell, the hp gas valve was opened briefly (with the release valve open and all other valves closed) to release some un-polarized xenon gas from the cold trap region of the pump cell that was not illuminated by the laser. After removal of un-polarized gas, the hp ¹³¹Xe was then shuttled into the sample cell for detection (hp gas and sample cell valve open, all other valves closed). After detection the vacuum valve was opened (hp gas valve closed) to re-evacuate the detection cell to less than 0.1 kPa. Air-cooled glass wool used to aid in the separation of Rb from the hp gases is not shown but was located in the transfer line near the detection region. Attached to the delivery line between the SEOP cell and the detection cell was a vessel containing only water liquid and H₂O vapor. The water vapor was transferred into the detection cell for selected experiments as described in the main text. D₂O shown in the sample region was used for shimming and locking for selected experiments.