Nuclear spin interferences in bulk water at room temperature

Abstract

Nuclear spin interference effects generated in a macroscopic sample of 10ml degassed water are detected in a simple NMR experiment. A \pi/2 - \tau - \pi/2 RF double pulse sequence (Ramsey sequence) is applied to the water sample immersed in a static magnetic field B0 " 4.7T. For a homogeneity of B0 of the order of \Delta B0/B0 = 2 . 10^{-8}, the nuclear spin interference term is controlled with a maximum relative deviation of 9.7 %. These results are a first step to manipulation of nuclear spin coherence of water molecules.