Compression of Spin-Polarized Hydrogen to High Density

Abstract

A new technique enabled the authors to compress doubly polarized hydrogen by up to five orders of magnitude and study the sample in very small volumes at constant density up to 2×${10}^{18}$/${\mathrm{cm}}^3$. The first determination of the bulk three-body dipolar recombination rate was made, ${K_V}^{3\mathrm{b}}=4\mathrm{}\left(1\right)\mathrm{}\times {10}^{-39\mathrm{}}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^6$ ${\mathrm{s}}^{-1\mathrm{}}$. The authors also identified a new process, bulk electronic dipolar $b\to c$-state relaxation with rate constant ${G_V}^{\mathrm{bc}}\exp \left(2\mathrm{}{\mu }_{\mathrm{B}}\frac{B}{k_{\mathrm{B}}}T\right)=8\mathrm{}\left(4\right)\mathrm{}\times {10}^{-16\mathrm{}}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^3$ ${\mathrm{s}}^{-1\mathrm{}}$. Samples were very delicate and too rapid a compression could result in an explosion.