Polarising liquid 3He by fractional distillation: A competitive alternative?

The method, pioneered by Nacher et al to produce polarized 3He by fractional distillation in a saturated 3He-4He mixture at s.v.p. has been improved by using higher pressures. In principle, this method gives access to a non-equilibrium steady-state polarization in the concentrated as well as the dilute phase. The maximum polarization achieved in the dilute phase at a pressure of 10 bar, a temperature of 100-150 mK and an external field of 6.6 T is nearly 20%