Rotation operator approach to spin dynamics and the Euler geometric equations

The rotation operator approach proposed previously is applied to spin dynamics in a time-varying magnetic field. The evolution of the wave function is described, and that of the density operator is also treated in terms of a spherical tensor operator base. It is shown that this formulation provides a straightforward calculation of accumulated phases and probabilities of spin transitions and coherence evolutions. The technique focuses, not on the rotation matrix, but on the three Euler angles and its characteristic equations are equivalent to the Euler geometric equations long known to describe the motion of a rigid body. The method usually depends on numerical calculations, but analytical solutions exist in some situations. In this paper, as examples, a hyperbolic secant pulse is solved analytically, and a Gaussian-shaped pulse is calculated numerically.