SPIN COHERENCE EXCITATION AND REPHASING WITH OPTICALLY SHELVED ATOMS

We investigate the use of resonant optical Raman pulses to excite and rephase ground state spin coherences via the partial storage or shelvi ng of atoms. Unlike direct-rf-excited spin echoes or off-resonant Rama n echoes, the resonant Raman optical field efficiently excites and rep hases the spin coherence using pi and 2 pi pulses, respectively. In a crystal of Pr3+ doped Y2SiO5, we experimentally observe spin echo effi ciency as high as 46% of the free induction decay signal. [S0163-1829( 98)50142-7].