A rapid and precise probe for measurement of liquid xenon polarization.

The relaxation time of liquid (129)Xe is very long (>15 min) and the signal at thermal equilibrium is weak. Therefore, determination of the absolute polarization enhancement of hyperpolarized (129)Xe by direct measurement is tedious. We demonstrate a fast and precise alternative, based on the dipolar field created by liquid hyperpolarized (129)Xe contained in a cylindrical sample tube. The dipolar field is homogeneous in the bulk of the tube and adds to the external field, causing a shift in the Larmor frequencies of all nuclear spins. We show that the frequency shift of the proton in CHCl(3) (chloroform), which dissolves homogeneously in xenon over a fairly broad temperature range, is an excellent probe for (129)Xe polarization. Frequency measurements are precise and the experiment is much faster than by direct measurement. Furthermore the (129)Xe polarization is minimally disturbed since no rf pulses are applied directly to (129)Xe and since chloroform is a fairly weak source of (129)Xe relaxation. The experiments are reproducible and require only standard NMR instrumentation. (c) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).