Nanosecond control and high-density production of spin-polarized hydrogen atoms

We demonstrate directly the nanosecond-timescale production of spin-polarized hydrogen (SPH) atoms from photodissociation of thermal HBr molecules, and the spin-state and Doppler-resolved detection using polarized fluorescence at 121.6 nm, without requiring hyperfine resolution. These techniques allow a variety of spin-dependent, nanosecond pump-probe experiments with SPH, which were not previously realizable. The potential of surpassing the SPH densities and production rates of current techniques is discussed.