NIST chip produces and detects specialized gas for biomedical analysis

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A chip-scale device that both produces and detects a specialized gas used in biomedical analysis and medical imaging has been built and demonstrated at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Described in Nature Communications,* the new microfluidic chip produces polarized (or magnetized) xenon gas and then detects even the faintest magnetic signals from the gas. Illustration of NIST chip that makes polarized xenon gas. Xenon atoms (green) are loaded into the chamber on the left. The xenon flows into the next chamber, where the atoms are polarized through collisions with rubidium atoms (red) that are illuminated with circularly polarized light. Then the xenon flows into the smaller chamber, where its polarization is measured, using the rubidium atoms in the same chamber as magnetometers. Atoms exit the chip from the chamber on the far right. Credit: NIST high resolution image Polarized xenon—with the atoms’ nuclear “spins” aligned like bar magnets in the same direction—can be dissolved in liquids and used to detect the presence of certain molecules. A chemical interaction with target molecules subtly alters the magnetic signal from the xenon; by detecting this change researchers can identify the molecules in a complex mixture. Polarized xenon is also used as a

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