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Metastability Exchange The metastable pumping apparatus has an optical pumping cell (the left-hand cell) filled to a few 100 Pa (few mbar) with 3He. An RF discharge maintains a small population of atoms in a long-lived ("metastable") excited state. These atoms are optically pumped with a 1083 nm laser and then compressed (with some loss of polarization) to near atmospheric pressure in the right-hand storage cell. Metastable optical pumping polarizes 3He roughly ten times as fast as spin-exchange, at the price of greater mechanical complexity.
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