Production of HD Molecules in Definite Hyperfine Substates

Polarized atomic beam sources have been in operation since many years to produce either nuclear polarized atomic hydrogen or deuterium beams. In recent experiments such a source was used to polarize both isotopes independently at the same time. By recombination of the atoms, HD molecules with all possible nuclear spin combinations can be created. Those spin isomers are useful for further applications like precision spectroscopy, as polarized targets for laser-particle acceleration, polarized fuel for fusion reactors or as an option for future measurements of electric dipole moments.