  We have observed a nearly fourfold increase in the electron spin resonance
(ESR) signal from an ensemble of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) due to
oxygen desorption. By performing temperature-dependent ESR spectroscopy both
before and after thermal annealing, we found that the ESR in SWCNTs can be
reversibly altered via the molecular oxygen content in the samples. Independent
of the presence of adsorbed oxygen, a Curie-law (spin susceptibility $\propto
1/T$) is seen from $\sim$4 K to 300 K, indicating that the probed spins are
finite-level species. For both the pre-annealed and post-annealed sample
conditions, the ESR linewidth decreased as the temperature was increased, a
phenomenon we identify as motional narrowing. From the temperature dependence
of the linewidth, we extracted an estimate of the intertube hopping frequency;
for both sample conditions, we found this hopping frequency to be $\sim$100
GHz. Since the spin hopping frequency changes only slightly when oxygen is
desorbed, we conclude that only the spin susceptibility, not spin transport, is
affected by the presence of physisorbed molecular oxygen in SWCNT ensembles.
Surprisingly, no linewidth change is observed when the amount of oxygen in the
SWCNT sample is altered, contrary to other carbonaceous systems and certain 1D
conducting polymers. We hypothesize that physisorbed molecular oxygen acts as
an acceptor ($p$-type), compensating the donor-like ($n$-type) defects that are
responsible for the ESR signal in bulk SWCNTs.
