Interdisciplinary experiments with polarized 3He

Optical pumping of metastable ³He atoms is a very efficient method to produce large quantities of nuclear spin-polarized ³He. Recent developments in mechanical compression of the gas, its storage and transport allow for its flexible use in different fields of physics and applied science. Among these are (1) scattering experiments of polarized beams from polarized ³He-targets, (2) ³He as neutron spin filter to polarize neutron beams at research reactors, and (3) polarized ³He gas inhaled into the lungs to perform magnetic resonance imaging. The paper discusses the different topics along with results obtained in a first round of experiments.