title: Transverse spin relaxation in liquid 129Xe in the presence of large dipolar fields.
abstract: Using spin-echo NMR techniques we study the transverse spin relaxation of hyperpolarized liquid 129Xe in a spherical cell. We observe an instability of the transverse magnetization due to dipolar fields produced by liquid 129Xe, and find that imperfections in the pi pulses of the spin-echo sequence suppress this instability. A simple perturbative model of this effect is in good agreement with the data. We obtain a transverse spin relaxation time of 1300 sec in liquid 129Xe, and discuss applications of hyperpolarized liquid 129Xe as a sensitive magnetic gradiometer and for a permanent electric dipole moment search.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Romalis
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Ledbetter