Optical magnetic resonance imaging of Rb vapor in low magnetic fields

By applying magnetic field gradients to alkali vapor cells, images of the spatial distribution of spin-polarized Rb atoms were obtained. Optical pumping is used to produce precessing spin-polarization in the ground state. Detection of the coherent spin transients is performed in the time-domain by a single optical probe beam covering the whole sample cell. Spatial resolution of better than 1 mm has been achieved by a projection-reconstruction method.