Highly spin-polarized deuterium atoms from the UV dissociation of Deuterium Iodide

Hyperpolarisation of deuterium (D) and tritium (T) nuclear spins increases the D-T fusion reaction rate by ~50%, thus lowering the breakeven limit for the achievement of self-sustained fusion, and controls the emission direction of the reaction products for improved reactor efficiency. However, the important D-D polarization-dependent fusion reaction has not yet been measured, due to the low density of conventional polarized deuterium beams of ~10$^{12}$ cm$^{-3}$, limited by collisions on the ms-timescale of production. Here we demonstrate that hyperpolarised D atoms are produced by the 270 nm photodissociation of deuterium iodide (DI), yielding ~60% nuclear D polarization after ~1.6 ns, ~10$^6$ times faster than conventional methods, allowing collision-limited densities of ~10$^{18}$ cm$^{-3}$. Such ultrahigh densities of polarized D atoms open the way for the study of high-signal polarized D-D reactions. We discuss the possibility of the production of high-density pulsed polarized beams, and of polarized D-D laser fusion.