Comparing low-field cryogenic nuclear relaxation of hyperpolarized diamond and silicon particles

We report on field cycling experiments with hyperpolarized diamond and silicon particles between 10 mT and 3.4 T at temperatures below 10 K. Diamonds with approximately 54 ppm defects, of which around 58% were P1 centers, were hyperpolarized by continuous-wave dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) at 3.4 T. For fields above 200 mT, the ¹³C relaxation in diamond was measured to be nearly independent of the magnetic field. At around 200 mT, the field dependence changed and [Formula: see text] was approximately proportional to the field strength. For example, the relaxation time decreased approximately threefold by reducing the main magnetic field from 200 mT to 75 mT. The ¹³C relaxation was measured to be independent of the DNP polarization time and nuclear hyperpolarization levels. In contrast, the relaxation of hyperpolarized silicon was found to be independent of the field strength down to a few mT, despite a relatively short time for DNP build-up. The results suggest that magnetic fields greater than approximately 200 mT are required for hyperpolarized diamonds with several ppm of (nitrogen) defects to ensure sufficiently long relaxation times.