Nuclear hyperpolarization in solids and the prospects for nuclear spintronics

Nuclear hyperpolarization can be achieved in a number of ways. This article focuses on the use of coupling of nuclei to (nearly) pure quantum states, with particular emphasis on those states obtained by optical excitation in bulk semiconductors. I seek an answer to this question: What is to prevent the design and analysis of nuclear spintronics devices that use the extremely long-lived hyperpolarized nuclear spin states, and their weak couplings to each other, to affect computation, memory, or informational technology schemes? The answer, I argue, is in part because there remains a lack of fundamental understanding of how to generate and control nuclear polarization with schemes other than with rf coils. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.